UBRARY^TCONGRESS. 






FNirjbD STATES OF AMEEIOA. 



^^^Ccux4>^ ^C/uMi^j CLttif-vui^ cyL^ 

CtuJL 




REUNION 



OHIO BRIGADE, 



OCTOBER 3D AND 4TH, 1878. 



I'l'^l'OliT OF 1M!0('KJ;|)L\GS 



OF 



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J. 



P 



^7i^^3'?',u 



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ONION 



INCLUDING 



)|A'oi;o r 
iiji 



:\1, ETC., 



HELD AT 



COLUMBUS, OHIO, 



October 3 and 4. 1878. 




MT. VERNON. 0.: 

•879. 



OFFICERS. 






PRKSIDENT. 



Gen. JOHN W. FULLER, 



VICE PRESIDENTS. 

Maj. JAMES MORGAN, 27th Ohio, 
W. H. H. MINTUN, 39th Ohio, - 
Gen. wager SWAYNE, 43d Ohio, - 
Col. CHAS. E. BROWN, 63d Ohio, 



Toledo, O. 



Cincinnati, O. 

Athens, O. 

Toledo, O. 
Cincinnati, O. 



SECRETARY. 



J. W. THOMPSON, 43d Ohio, 



Chicago, 111. 



TREASURER. 



A. J. WHITE, 39th Ohio, 



- Cincinnati, O. 



COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION. 

D. W. CHASE, - - - - Mt. Vernon, O. 

CHAS. H. SMITH, _ _ _ _ Cleveland, O. 

R. L. CHITTENDEN, _ _ _ Fremont, O. 

CHAS. E. BROWN, _ _ _ _ Cincinnati, O. 



COMMITTEE ON NEXT REUNION. 

Gen. J. W. FULLER, _ _ _ Toledo, O. 

Maj. JAMES MORGAN, _ _ _ Cincinnati, O. 

W. H. H. MINTUN, _ _ _ Athens, O. 

J. W. THOMPSON, - _ - _ Chicago, 111. 



Ill \m\)i ('(iiJiiiiii OHIO 



OCTOBER 3 AND 4, 1878. 



27th, 39th, 43d and 63d, 0. V. I. 



Pursuant to the general ctall issued early in the s})ring for a 
brigade reunion, a goodly number of the surviving members of 
the Ohio Brigade met at C"i)lunibus, Oliio, October 3d and 4th, 
1878. 

The Local Committee had made ample preparations, so that 
everything seemed to work smoothly and satisfactorily from the 
first arrival until the departure of the last attendant. 

Governor b'. M. liisho]) lia<l kindly tendered the use of the 
Portrait Pooni in the Cai»ilol l)uilding to the Local Committee. 
for their head-quarters, and to which all members were invited, 
immediately upon their aniv;i| in the city, to register their 
names ami obtain badges. 

An informal meeting was lu'ld there during the afternoon of 
the 3d, at which old frieiulships were renewed and army associ- 
ations revived. It was an occasion of interest, thoroughly 
enjoyed by all who were permitted to be present; the only 
regret being that there were not more to enjoy it. 

In the evening, at eight o'clock, the first fctrmal meeting was 
held in the Representatives Hall of the Cai)itol building, which 
was ai>propriately decorated for the occasion. Fiong before the 
hour of oi)ening, the hall was well filled with the^/i7«'of the 
city of Columbus, who had gatlu'red there to extend to the old 
veterans their cordial and heartv welcome. (General ('. C Wal- 



4 REUNION- OHIO BlUOADK, 

cutt presided. The exercises of the evening were opened by 
reveille under the direction of Capt;iin Horn, U. S. A., after 
which Chaplain R. L. Chittenden, of the 4:3d Ohio, offered the 
opening prayer. 

The "Araphions," of Columbus, were then introduced and 
sung one of their inspiring songs, which was thoroughly enjoyed 
by all, and was a fitting prelude to the hearty welcome of the 
citizens of ColumV)us, through General Beatty, which caused 
the old veterans to realize that Cokimbus appreciated their 
labors and sacrifices, and the results which had been accom- 
plislied through the efforts of the great army of the Union. 

The interest of the evening, however, concentratcnl in the ad- 
dress to the Brigade by General J. W. Fuller. His appeai'ance 
was the occasion of a most hearty outbrealv of enthusiasm, 
and his address was often interrupted 1)y Ijursts of applause. 
When he reviewed the transactions of those memorable days in 
the history of the Brigade, October 3d and -ith, 1862, in which 
they played so prominent a part in the repulse of the Rebel 
army in their desperate onslaught at Corinth, Miss., they seemed 
to live over again the terrible scenes of the battle-field around 
Battery Robinet, where so many of tlieir number offered their 
lives on the altar of their country. At the close of General 
Fuller's address, that brave and noble soldier, known and en- 
deared to the entire Brigade on account of his devotion to the 
cause, his kindness to the soldier, and his firmness and decision 
in the hour of danger, General Wager Swayne, was introduced. 
His address reviewed briefly the objects that were to be accom- 
plished by the war, and the results since developed; showing how 
important the part played by every soldier in that great tragedy, 
and the responsilnlity now resting upon them as citizens of our 
great commonwealth; advising them to stand firmly for the 
right, maintaining it by the use of such means as are accorded 
to every true and faithful citizen. 

Chaplain Eaton followed General Swayne Avitli a very fine 
address, which was heartily appreciated by all ; after whom 
there followed a number of short and informal addresses from 
various members of the Brigade. 

Special mention should be made of the music furnished for 
the occasion. The vocal music by the " Amphions" was of the 
very highest order, and thoroughly adapted to the occasion. 



COLUMBUS, OHIO. ') 

contvil)u(ing largely to the (•iijoyniciit of the evening; whilst 
the iustrumental music, by the Giirsioii Hand, was simply grand ; 
to the truth of which all who have been permiltod to licar this 
famous military band will readily assent. 

After this meeting the various delegates adjourned to their 
respective hotels and places of entertainment, at which rcuTiion 
exercises were kept up to the small hours of morning. 

At nine o'clock on the mornino- of the 4th, a large number of 
the members in attendance assembled at the committee-room in 
the Cai)itol ])uilding. The Fjocal Committee announced that 
provisions had been made for a drive around the city, and all 
who desired to avail themselves of this privilege were requested 
to get into carriages provided for the occasion. This part of 
the i)rogramme was veiy enjoyable to those who were stran<'-ers 
to Columbus and its institutions. The remainder of the fore- 
noon was spent in sight-seeing, or any other way that seemed 
desirable. 

At one o'clock all were requested to rei)ort at Dent's dining 
rooms, where dinner would be served. On reaching there, it 
was found that ample provision had been made to accommodate 
the entire membership in attendance. To those who know the 
rei)utation established by Mr. Dent as a caterer, it is hardly 
necessary to say that everything provided was first-class, and 
that all the arrangements reflected highly to his credit and that 
of the Local Committee. It was certainly an occasion never to 
be forgotten by those in attendance. The toasts, songs, anec- 
dotes, incidents, letters of regret and telegrams from absent sur- 
vivors, together with the natural inspiration incident to such an 
occasion, all conspired to make it a season nf Ihr highest 
enjoyment. 

The special business of the reunion was transacted at the 
ban(|uet, tlie following ofhcers being elected, thereby constitut- 
ing a pei'inanent organization: 

Fresidriit — General J. W. Fillek, Toledo, 0. 
Vice Pirsidcnf.i — ]\Iajor Jamks .Mougax, :27th Ohio. Cincin- 
nati, 0.: W. II. II. MiNTUN, ;3!)th Ohio, Athens, ().; General 
Wagku tSwAYNK, 43d Ohio, Toledo, O. ; Colonel CiiAKi.Ks E. 
Browx, (;3d Ohio, Cincinnati, O. 

Secretary— J. W. Thompsov, 43d Ohio, Chicago. III. 
Treasurer — A. J. WmxE, 3'Jth Ohio, Cincinnati, 0. 



b REUNION OHIO BRIGADE. 

Committee on Publication — D. W. Chase, Mount Vernou, 
0.; Charles H. Smith, Cleveland, 0.; Eev. R. L. Chitten- 
den, Fremont, 0.; Colonel Charles E. Brown, Cincin- 
nati, 0. 

Committee on Next Reunio7i — Authorized to designate time 
and select place, and make the necessary arrangements there- 
for — General J. W. Fuller, Toledo, 0. ; Major James Morgan, 
Cincinnati, 0.; W. H. H. Mintun, Athens, 0.; J. W. Thomp- 
son, Chicago, 111. 

A resolution was unanimously passed extending the hearty 
sympathy of the surviving members in attendance at the re- 
union, to the wife of our late comrade. Dr. Arthur B. Monahan, 
deceased, of Jackson, Ohio. 

A resolution that the sympathy of the Brigade be extended to 
all of the families of deceased comrades, was also unanimously 
carried. 

A resolution was introduced and unanimously adopted, peti- 
tioning the Congress of the United States that a special act be 
passed for relief of the wife of our late comrade. Lieutenant 
Colonel A. L. Haskins of the 63d Ohio. 

A resolution of thanks, to the Local Committee in Columbus, 
who arranged the reunion, praying them to accept the gratitude 
of the Brigade for their untiring efforts, which made it such an 
eminent success ; to the citizens of Columbus, for their hospi- 
tality and most cordial and hearty reception ; was passed with 
three cheers by the Brigade. Immediately following, the song, 
"Marching Through Georgia," was sung, in which all joined, 
being led by the " Amphions," at the conclusion of which the 
reunion exercises were declared ended, and the Brigade ad- 
journed to meet subject to the call of the Committee on Reunion. 

J. W. THOMPSON, 

Secretary. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME, 

BY GENERAL JOHN BEATTY. 

Gentlemen: — It affords us great pleasure to meet you here 
this eveniug, and on behalf of the good people of our city I have 
the honor to bid you cordial and hearty welcome. We heard 
of you nianv years ago, when you were members of the Ohio 
Brigade, and as the details of your heroic action on the battle- 
fields of luka, Corinth, and Parker's Cross Roads, were brought 
to us on the wings of the liglitning, every heart in the State 
swelled with pride at the additional evidence which you gave 
of the fact that the honor of Ohio was safe in the keeping of her 
soldiers. We lieard of you afterward at Dallas, at Resaca, at 
Atlanta, in Sherman's march to the sea; and we learned that 
on whatever battle-field you stood a new lustre was added to the 
name of our State. We felt then that we knew you well, we 
knew then that we loved you well, and we could not help doing 
so, for God has so made the hearts of honest men and true 
women, that they open involuntarily and iinconsciously to the 
brave, the loyal and the self-denying. 

We prize aiul cherish your achievements as we do the battle- 
torn flags of your regiments — nay, this does us injustice. Let 
me say, rather, that we prize the banners which you bore tri- 
umphantly, simply because they remind us of your nights of 
vigil and your days of marching and of battles. We greet you, 
therefore, not with the fornnil and stately courtesy extended to 
strangers, but with that heartfelt, genial, overflowing welcome 
due to brothers, friends and benefactors, who have enriched us 
by years of devotion and generous self-sacrifice. Men returning 
or returned from victorious fields have in all ages aiul all 
climes been welcomed with rejoicings by the i)eople for whom 
they fought, and in whose cause the victories were won. This 
is the soldier's recompense. The aftpntval of his own conscience 



8 REUXIOX OHIO BRIGADE, 

ma}" ill part sustain and repay him for years of labor, privation, 
suffering, sacrifice and danger, but Avlien this is supplemented 
by the cordial approbation of his fellow men, his reward, inade- 
quate as it really is, to his knightly and generous spirit seems. 
overfull : his scars become glowing badges of honor, and the 
discomforts of the camp, the weariness of the march, and the 
accidents of battle, the pleasantest incidents of his life. 

Gentlemen, the laurels you won in the great struggle for the 
preservation of the Union, will grow brighter and greener as 
years roll on. The deeds of the great armies with which you 
were connected will be recorded in a thousand histories, while 
the thrilling incidents of your own lives will be handed down in 
your families and become familiar traditions of the household. 
It requires no great stretch of the imagination to see the inquis- 
itive boy or \'outh of a century, nay, of five centuries hence, 
exploring closets and old libraries, delving into ancient books 
and musty manuscripts, eager to find some scrap of the history 
of the man who carried the name he bears through the great 
struggle which took place when the Xation was young. How 
he prizes every word. With what joy he seizes the letters which 
you wrote from the battle-field. It is his own blood speaking 
to him from the shadowy and almost forgotten past. Your 
spirit thus goes down the centuries and communes with his — 
teaches him to be loyal, self-sacrificing and brave, and he looks 
back with earnest, eager eyes through the fading centuries to 
get a glimpse of you. 

With what pride he will say: "My ancestor was a Union 
soldier. He stood with Grant at Vicksburg, with Rosecrans at 
Stone River, with Meade at Gettysburg, with Thomas at Chick- 
amauga, with Sheridan in the Shenandoah, and followed Sher- 
man in that grand march down to the sea." 

So, my friends, what you suffered to attain your memories 
will live to secure. Whenever our flag is threatened, either by 
foes without or traitors within, millions of men will spring to 
arms exclaiming, *' My father,- my family, fought and bled for 
the supremacy of that flag ; and, so help me God, I will not see it 
dishonored." 

In welcoming you we would not forget your absent comrades, 
and especially those who fell in the heat of the conflict. They 
are scattered from the Ohio to the Atlantic, sleeping by the 



COLUMBUS, OJIIO. 9 

streams, in tlic valleys, on Mic hillsides, uikUt the shadow f»f 
the great mountains of the South ; but they will not be forgot- 
ten. The mother cherishes the memory of her son, and will 
perpetuate it. The father delights to talk of the gallant boy 
who fell on the field, and the red blood blossoms with new 
beauty in the cheek of woman when she speaks oT brotliiT. lover, 
father, who died for natioiiMJ unity. 

Gentlemen, you cannot hope to contribute nuu-h, if any tiling, 
to the history of the second century of the Iici)ublic. That 
great work belongs to your children. They have to guide them 
the record of fheir fathers in tlu> century past. May God bless 
and prosper them in the century coming. They must not look 
for perpetual peace any more than for continuous sunshine or 
uninterrupted prosperity ; and it may be well that it is so — nay, 
it is well. God chasteneth whom he loveth, and from these 
chastisements nations and individuals often, if not always, gain 
in wisdom, purity and strength. It is the heart which has 
experienced trouble, that struggles hopefully with adversity ; 
the mind which has met and triumphed over difficulties, that 
regards with cool determination the disasters that may threaten. 
While it may not be possible, and possibly not always desirable 
even, to avoid war, it is possible and desirable so to train up our 
children that they may go through tlie fiery ordeal with brave 
and loyal hearts; to so rear them that they will respond 
promptly to the call of duty, let it lead whithersoever it will : 
to so educate them that they will lay down their lives, if 
need be, for the honor of liie Hag ami the [)erpetiiity of the 
Union. 

Citizens and soldiers, shall we nut aim to impress upon those 
who are to follow^ us the fact tiial this is man's government ; 
that here all God's children are, and should continue to be, e«|ual, 
standing erect, free, untranimcled, stripped for the race of life, 
acknowledging no superior but their Creator. 

Gentlemen, let me say in conclusion, that for you the latch- 
string of every home in Columbus Jiangs out to-day ; the hand 
of every citizen is extended to greet you, and the smiles an<l 
good wishes of every woman :iwait you. 

The address of (rcneral Jieally was freciuently cheered during 
the delivery, and was heartily ai)plauded at the elose. 'IMi.' 



10 REUNION" OHIO BEIGADE, 

Barracks band rendered another air, after which was delivered 
the following 



ADDRESS BY GENERAL JOHN W. FULLER. 

When friends who have long been steadfast are scattered by 
life's vicissitudes, and meet and greet in after years, one theme 
is ui^permost in every heart — the story of the days when they 
stood side by side together ; the days in which they learned to 
trust each other, and when the trials and triumphs of each were 
common to them all. And thus it is, my comrades, when once 
the joyous word with which we greet each other has been spoken, 
it seems so very natural to wander back in fancy to those inci- 
dents and scenes, forever fresh in all our memories, forever 
woven with the days when we all stood as one. 

It is an old story to you all, and yet I could say nothing you 
would hear more willingly to-night. So, drawing as I must 
from memory, I purpose to sketch briefly an outline of the service 
of the old Brigade to which you all belonged, while I had the 
honor to command. 

It was about the 1st of July, 1862, when the resignation of 
Colonel Groesbeck left me senior officer of the Brigade. And 
here let me say, that proud as I am of having been your com- 
mander, I know there were others equally able to take the place, 
and to whose ability and ever ready co-operation we are greatly 
indebted for what was done. I have sometimes thought that 
few brigades in any army could show so many able officers. 
Smith, who fell so young, and Sprague, and Swayne, andNoyes ; 
all, not merely competent, but all distinguished. And there 
were others, who only needed opportunity to make their mark. 
Did you ever think how many of our officers were detailed 
for important trusts elsewhere ? General Pope began by taking 
Colonel Noyes for service on his staff ; then Surgeon Thrall was 
taken from his regiment that he might serve as Medical Director 
for that army. Colonel Swayne must needs serve as Provost 
Marshal for Western Tennessee ; Lieutenant Vogleson was made 
Chief Commissary for a corps, witli rank to correspond ; and 
when was wanted one to plan and care for an emancipated race, 
General Grant selected one of our chaplains for that task. We 



COLUMHIS, OHIO. 11 

lost a faithful officer, but the l>I;ick inaii gaiiitMl ii frit^'iid whose 
labor and success in his behalf soon made the name (»f Katon 
known thron^liout the land. There were many, too, who >^r;u\- 
uated in our camp and took higher rank elsewhere. Lathro[), 
who fell in battle near Athens, Ala., and Thomas, our generous 
host to-day, both captains in our line, left us to lead new 
regiments. 

When the Rebels gave up Oorinth, our army occupied the ridges 
to the south and near the town; and it was the good fortune of 
this Brigade to find a pleasant camp on Clear Creek. 

It was good fortune too, for us, that the commander of our 
division had (juce commanded the Brigade. For Stanley recol- 
lected your good behavior at New Madrid ; and, on the otlier 
hand, you all remembered Stanley as a skillful officer, and you 
believed he was as brave as Marshal Ney. It was here that mo.st 
of you met the distinguished soldier wlioni his friends delighted 
to call " Old Rosy," and who was then assigned to command the 
Army of the Mississippi. You have not forgotten his genial 
face, his restless manner, nor the tireless energy with which he 
looked into every detail. 

In September, 1S(J2, rumors were current that the enemy was 
approaching, and soon we learned that our garrison at luka, 
some twenty miles to the east, had been compelleil to abandon 
its position, and fall back toward Corinth. A stnnig reci»n- 
noisance showed that the Rebel General Price was in luka, where- 
upon General Grant ordered a simultaneous attack by Rose- 
crans, who was to approach from the south, and by Ord from 
the west. The day before the attack, General Stanley had been 
misled by his guide. We had marched far out of our way, and 
late at night found ourselves some miles in rear of the leading 
division. It was the fault of the stupid guide, whom Rosy 
himself had sent to show the road, so Stanley said; l)ut Rosy 
was so indignant at the mistake, that when he rode into our 
bivouac at midnight, and came to the spot where several officers 
were eating sup[)er, he spoke his mind with greater freedom than 
was pleasant for his subordinate to hear.* 

When Rosecrans learned that Stanley's division was so far be- 



*<ieneral Stanley writes, since this aiMross was delivered, "Tlie reason for 
taking ttie imlirect route, was the fact that the shorter road had been rendered 
impassable by the enemy." 



13 REUJsrioisr ohio brigade, 

hind, he forwarded that dispatch which caused General Grant to 
postpone the time for Ord's attack. General Grant took it for 
granted, Avhen this dispatch was read, that Stanley could not get 
up in time, and that Rosecraus would not attack until the suc- 
ceeding morning. Hence liis orders to General Ord to wait. If 
General Grant had known then, as well as afterwards, how long 
your legs were when there was a fight ahead, he would never 
have changed the original plan ; for at three o'clock next morning 
you were under way, and before noon had overtaken the rear of 
the leading division. 

luka was a stubborn fight, but the brunt of tlie battle fell 
upon Hamilton's division; and it was only wlien dusk was falling 
that Rosecrans ordered you to the front. You moved forward 
with a cheer, drowning for a moment the roll of musketry ; 
then on tlie crest, face to face witli the enemy, you opened that 
steady and deadly fire, which ever thereafter marked this Brigade 
when in the forefront of battle. But darkness fell quite sud- 
denly, and Rosecrans, wondering why he lieard no sound of Ord, 
sent orders for us to halt and wait for daylight. Yet before 
dawn, some skirmishers (of the 39th) reported that the llth 
Ohio Battery, which had been lost that afternoon, could not be 
carried off, since it was completely covered by our line of fire, 
and we had only to advance and take it back ; and so it proved : 
for wlien at dawn tlie brigade moved forward, tlie battery was 
found, and Neil, (whose home is in this city of Columbus,) 
with others of his comrades, was gladdened with the sight of all 
the guns. 

Bat the Rebel General Price knew exactly where Ord Avas, and 
foreseeing that his troops, as well as Rosecrans', would fight to- 
morrow, he quietly withdrew under cover of the night, and 
marched away. In luka early the next moi-ning, Rosecrans 
and Ord shook hands, Rosy complaining that Ord had failed to 
play the part assigned him in tlie plan of battle, and Ord show- 
ing his orders of postponement. 

Ord's command marclied back to Corinth, then to Bolivar, 
while Ilosecrans followed the Rebels in their circuit to the south 
and west, keeping between them and his base at Corinth, and 
watching for what move would follow the union of the corps of 
Price with the army of Van Dorn, which was reported near to 
Ripley. It was not a long suspense, for a few days showed the 



coLiMiu's, oiiro. 13 

enemy's intont ion, oitlit'i- to taki' ami occu|iv Corini li, or Iraviii'r 
Coriiitli on their rinlit, to assail (ieneral Urd at Bolivar, 'I'cnn. 
We waited till Oetolier 'id before it was eei'tain that Corinth was 
tlieir ol)je('tive point. Then hr^an the concenti'ation of IJose- 
cruns' tr()oi)s lo meet, the attack. 

On tlie morning of October ;5(1, jnst sixteen years a,i,n» lo-dav, 
the enemy attacked tlie division of (ieneral Davies at the outer 
line of works, the line consti-ueted by the Rebels when Sidney 
Johnson and Ik-auregard held pos.session of the town. Davies 
had been ordered there to ivtard the enemy's advance, until 
Rosy should be ready to K't Van Horn come in. Van Dorn's 
superior strength enabled him to drive Davies from this line, 
but Davies' men fought stul)l)onily, and fell back over that two 
or three miles so slowly, that it was near night avIku they aj)- 
|)roaclied the outskirts of the town, and wIumi reinforcements 
enal)led Davies to stop the enemy's advance. After dark the 
Ohio Brigad(( marched to relieve one of the l)rigades of Davies' 
division, and was ordered to occupy the high gi-ound near Bat- 
tery Robinet. Xear the crest was formed the line of battle. 
Directly on the right of the earth-work covering the battery, and 
stretching across the Chewalla road, stood the men of the ij'M ; 
next came the :iTth, and farther still to the right was the 39th 
regiment. On the left of the battery, facing to the left, and 
nearly at right angles with the main line, rested the 43d. 

Let us go l)ack through the intervening years, and in fancy 
place ourselves on the si)ot then oecu})ied, and look again over 
that held wliieh has since been famous. Before you, for 300 
yards, lie in confusion the few trees which have been felled to 
form a partial abattis. Beyond this stands the forest, and 
through both, leads, without obstruction, the road to Chewalla. 
I'o the right of the 39th the line of battle is broken for 
three hundred yards, by an impassible swamp, beyond 
which we see the rising ground occupied by several brig- 
ades of our infantry, and on the extreme right, perhaps a 
mile away, the earth-work called Fort Richardson, Turning to 
look over your riglit shoulder you may see what transpires in the 
streets of Corinth. "Without changing your position you may, 
by looking over the other shoulder, see a part of tlie division of 
General MeKean, and the redoubt called Battery Phillips, which 
form rh(> left of Hosecrans' line of battle. If vou come to a 



14 REUJSriON OHIO BRIGADE, 

right about, you see directly in rear the cut through the hill 
where lies the Memphis railroad, and just over this, on still 
higher ground, stands Fort Williams, with a twenty -pounder 
Parrot looking out of each embrasure. Your own batteries, Co. 
F. of 2d U. S., and Co. C. of 1st Michigan Artillery, are ready for 
action on the high ground abreast of Fort Williams; all appar- 
ently so near, that but for their elevated position you might 
look down the cannons' throats. Here you waited during tlic 
long hours of the night of October 3d, and here you fought on 
the morning of the 4th. 

The removal of Davies' skirmish line, which by some mistake 
was not made known to us, permitted the enemy to advance so 
closely that, although hidden by the darkness, you could hear 
him planting his guns in the edge of the forest, not more than 
300 yards in your front ; and during the night, the commander 
of that battery, (I think from New Orleans) reconnoitering the 
ground between his guns and your line, was quietly captured, 
mounted though he was, by Captain (since (leneral) Brown, of 
the 63d Ohio. 

It was a night of suspense and anxiety to all. We knew that 
General Hackleman had been killed, and we had seen General 
Oglesl)y carried to the rear, Avith a wound we supposed was 
mortal. Hundreds more, wounded during the day's fight, had 
been borne to the hospitals, and the men of Davies' division, 
who had fought against great odds all day and had been slowly 
driven back, seemed well nigh disheartened. You knew you 
had to meet an enemy not only strong and resolute, but who 
was also flushed with what he thought a victory. Hence you 
listened with anxiety to those sounds of preparation, so plainly 
heard from the hill, where, lying down without sleeji, you 
waited for the assault. It seems strange, in view of the rapid 
and thorough mode of entrenching afterward acquired, that no 
attempt was made to fortify, especially since we now know how 
much superior the enemy was in numbers. But we had not 
then learned the use of spades. 

With the earliest dawn of day, the Rebel battery in front 
opens its fire. What a magnificent display! Nothing you had 
ever seen looked like the flashes of those guns ! No rockets 
ever scattered fire like the bursting of those shells ! Not long, 
however, for as soon as there is light enough to aim, the twenty- 



COLUMBUS. OHIO. 15 

pounder PaiTots in Fort Williams suddenly liclfli ruith and 
make the i)laee occu]Med liy the Kebel battery so hot that it i.- 
hurriedly withdrawn, ^\■t not all, for one jrnn has been aban- 
doned, and some venturesome boys of the 03d Ohio, with others 
of tlie 1st IT. S. Infantry, run forward, and pull it into our lines 
by hand. 'IMhmi came fierce liuliting between the skirmishers. 
The enemy had the cover of the woods, while our men crcut 
from log to log, in the endeavor to gain the better cover of the 
forest. Reinforcements to our skirmishers enabled them, after 
two hours fighting, to drive the Rebels back, and gave the 
shelter sought ; but not far off, the conformation of the ground 
was peculiarly fortunate for the enemy. lie could lie on the 
crest of a series of ridges and sweep everything in his front, 
scarcely exposing a man to view. Behind these ridges he was 
massing his men for the assault. 

About ten or eleven o'clock, our attention is divertetl from 
the fierce skirmish in our immediate front by the advance of 
General Price's divisions, which are moving out of the woods to 
oiir right front, and marching upon the troops and fort which 
form the right of Kosecrans' line of battle. A si>lendid sight is 
that, as one Rebel brigade after another moves in line style over 
the ground which our position overlooks so i)liiinly. The attack 
is fierce, and we soon are shocked to see our line give way and 
retire into the very town. We notice, too, some of our batteries 
drawn out of position and rapidly pulled to the rear. The guns 
of Fort Williams, and of our own batteries directly in our rear, 
are all turned to the right, and an enfilading fire sweei>s 
through the Rebel hosts with an effect very plainly visible ; but, 
though disordered somewhat, they move on ; fresh troo})s ])our 
out of the woods, and we see the Rebels rushing over the works 
on our right, and pouring into Corinth itself. A rolling fire is 
heard in the streets, and soon after the Rebels begin to retire. 
They stand awhile at the works they had captured, but our 
boys are coming to the front again from the town. At this 
juncture, some regiments of Hamilton's division, not previously 
engaged, are thrown forward on the extreme right, where, as 
finely aligned as if on parade, they are pouring a stream of lead 
into the Rebel ranks. A little later, we say to cacli other, most 
joyously, " Our boys are driving them back again." 

But a fiercer fire than ever opens on our own skirmish line. 



16 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

and a constant hum of bullets tells us that our turn is coming 
now ; and it proves to be the Rebel center moving for the. main 
attack upon the place we occupy. Looking through the trees 
before us, we ]Dlainly see the Rebel banners and their attacking 
columns, advancing. The -iSd changes front forward on its 
right company, and the 11th Missouri is rapidly brought forward 
and held in reserve, just behind the G3d Oliio. Our skirmishers 
are driven back pell mell upon the line of battle ; the artillery 
with ns in Robinet, and the guns which play over »our heads 
from the rear are firing rapidly, and some of your oflficers are 
running along the line ordering you to " Get down, and lie low, 
until they are close upon us." In another minute the head of 
a Rebel column coming along the Chewalla road, is seen near 
bv, heading straight for the 63d and Battery Robinet. jS^ow 
5^ou rise to your feet, and pour into the enemy that steady fire 
which fills the road with his dead, and seems to cause a halt ; 
foi- though the rear of his column moves steadily on, the head 
of it comes no nearer, but appears to melt away. But the 
enemy is firing too. Along the whole length of the 63d, and 
portions of the 27th and 43d, officers and men are falling fast. 

Some scenes here witnessed, though almost as brief as if re- 
vealed by a flash of lightning, are stami)ed indelibly upon our 
memories. Just where the 63d adjoins the 27th, three men go 
down together. One, in the front rank, is lifting his arms high 
in the air and slowly sinking down. The man behind, and 
covering the first, drops as if. a thunderljolt had struck him; 
while another turns around, and with a look of agony upon his 
face, and trying to walk to the rear, moves but a step and falls. 
Captain McFadden, of the 63d, shouts out his first command in 
battle and is dead ! Lieutenant Webb, of the 27th, endeavors 
to repeat the order to " fire low," and while his mouth is opened 
wide, a bullet enters. He throws up his hands, and falling on 
his face, is still forever ! But the men not hit, heed nothing ; 
they fire incessantly, and their faces black with powder, make 
noticeable their flashing eyes and their set teeth, so that they 
look like demons. 

A minute later, the column in the Chewalla road has disap- 
peared, but a strong force a little farther to the westj is ap- 
proaching the left of Robinet, and is making sad havoc in the 
ranks of the 43d. This regiment has hardly finished its 



COLUMHUS, OHIO. 17 

mjinuiuvre of cluuiginii front, obstructed as is the (icld with 
logs iind hnisli, and exposed uiorcovor to a Hank lire from the 
Chewalla road. A gUmce in their direction, reveals a startling 
picture ! Colonel Kirby Smith, commander of the regiment, is 
down ; rider and horse together. Some men now raise him up, 
his face falls over towards us, and we see his cheek is red with 
blood. Lieutenant Heyl, the Adjutant, trying to keep his sad- 
dle, clutches liis horse's mane, but gradually loses grip, and 
before a comrade with outstretched arms can reach him, he is 
on the ground. A dozen more along the line drop in tiiat 
instant, and the enemy's fire, from front and ilank, is so severe 
that for a moment a rout is feared ; but only for a nn^ment, for 
Swayne here takes command of tiie regiment and is steadying 
the line, and General Stanley, who rode over to the rigiit when 
he thought that all the fighting was to be done there, gallops 
back in the nick of time to help. His coming at that critical 
moment seemed like the arrival of reinforcements. And now 
this regiment takes sudden vengeance for its colonel's fall ; for 
they drive back, with great slaughter, the force which approaches 
to the left of llobinet, and shoot every Rebel who shows his head 
above the parapet or tries to climb through the embrasures of 
the battery, when the final effort is made, very soon thereafter, 
to carry that work by storm. 

While the 43d is thus engaged. Colonel Rogers, commanding 
the Texan Brigade, rides out from the woods, and with liis 
troops moves along the Chewalla road heading for the battery 
and the 63d. Another moment, his horse is shot and he is com- 
ing along the road on foot. His leading color-sergeant falls, when 
Rogers, })icking up the colors, continues to advance with flag in 
hand. A cloud of Rebel skirmishers on either side of the road 
are firing heavily on the 63d and left wing of the 27th, until 48 
per cent, of the men of the former regiment are killed or 
wounded, and the line is so much thinned that Colonel Sprague 
and I, standing behind, can look right through it.aiul distinctly 
seethe advancing Rebels, now close at hand. 

I shall always recollect how well Sprague looked at that event- 
ful moment. Tall, and comnninding in appearance, with sword 
in one iiand and pistol in the other, he stood as a painter likes to 
portray an othccr in battle. I shall remember, too, looking at 
the face of the rebel Colonel Rogers, when not distant more than 



18 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

thirty yards, and noting the peculiar expression it bore. He 
looked neither to tlie right nor left, neither at his own men nor at 
mine ; but with eyes partly closed, like one in a hail storm, was 
marching slowly and steadily upon ns ; and there flashed through 
my mind this question, "Is he stupid with drink, oris he simply 
resolved to calmly meet a fate which he foresees ? " Before there 
was time to answer to myself this question, the Rebel column in 
the road seemed to gain some tremendous impetus from the 
rear, for it suddenly rushed on like a great wave, threatening to 
sweep into the gap which had been shot through the 63d, and to 
carry the redoubt by storm. The supreme moment had noAV 
come : and I turned to give the signal to the 11th Missouri, in 
reserve, and close behind. The leader of this regiment, perhaps 
ten minutes earlier, had received his orders ; they had been sung 
out over the heads of his men, so that every soldier in the ranks 
knew what was wanted, and there was no need to repeat them 
now. " Forward I " shouted the Major, as the regiment sprang 
up, and I had to run to the right to let them pass. With a short 
quick step, and alignment perfect, they tilled up the gap which 
the enemy's fire had made, charging the Rebel column on the 
head. The 27th, under Spaulding, which had lost heavily, yet 
still was full of fight, joined by a plucky remnant of the 63d, 
rushed forward at the same moment, charging the column ob- 
liquely on its left flank, when in an instant the whole scene 
changed. Rogers, with many of his men, lay dead before us, 
and those who were not prisoners, were flying back to the 
woods. One moment, the Rebels seemed to be swarming over 
us in thousands, our own lines looked thin and weak, we seemed 
threatened with destruction ; the next, most of the living of 
the foremost Rebels were our prisoners, a few hundreds, appar- 
ently, were running to the forest, while our boys seemed to have 
swelled into many thousands. 

In the melee, this banner of the enemy, [pointing to a cap- 
tured flag displayed in rear of the speaker,] was captured by a 
private of the 27th Ohio, Orrin B. Gould, of Company G, who 
I am glad to see is here to-night. But there was one red flag, I 
think the banner briefly borne by Rogers, which escaped us as 
by a miracle. Some bold Texan had picked it up almost from 
beneath our feet, and throwing the staff across his shoulders, 
ran in a zig-zag manner for the woods. He dodged behind a 



COHMIU'S, OHIO. 19 

log a iiionieiit hero, then behind ;i .stuiuj) there ; he was fired at 
by twenty men or more, and once, whethor hit or not. tinnhled 
headlong when striding a fallen tree. Yet he eseaped witli the 
banner after all ; and as he i)assed over the ridge out of our 
sight, some of our boys who had missed him. gave him the cheer 
that was due a hero. 

An incident may here be mentioned of the 4;jd. Wh^n the 
Rebels made their final effort to break through our lines. Lieu- 
tenant Robinet of the battery, severely wounded in the head, fell 
senseless under one of his guns. At this, most of his men 
ran to the rear. A moment later, some of the men of Com- 
pany A, of the 43d, entered the battery, and aided the few brave 
fellows who had stood their ground, to man the guns. The 
enemy was now retreating, and, in the excitement, a little drum- 
mer passed directly before the battery and jumped upon a log to 
see the Rebels run. A piece had just been sighted, and " ready, 
fire," followed, before the little fellow was discovered. When the 
smoke cleared up, we saw that both his legs were torn away. 
Somehow there seemed a sting in the recollection that men of 
his own regiment had fired this shot. And now came Colonel 
Xoyes, of the 39th, Avho was so far to the right that his men 
could only get an oblique fire, asking permission to bring his 
regiment to the Chewalla road, where they could take a hand 
when the next assault should come. Two minutes later, the reg- 
iment was across the road, but the battle was over. 

That thrill of eestacy which victory brings, was here intensified 
by an act of tlie commanding general. Rosecrans had lost his 
temper when the troops attacked by Price had temporarily given 
way, and had hardly time to become appeased by their subse- 
quent good conduct. Still nursing his wrath, and having seen 
Van l>orn had met with a different reception at the hands of 
this Brigade, he was disposed to extol the men who fought near 
Robinet, at the expense of those Avho had fallen back. So riding 
to the crest we occupied and jwinting to the right, he said : " I 
have just come from a part of the field where some of our troops 
retreated like old women ; but now I know, not only from what 
I heard and what I saw from a distance, but also from these piles 
of dead along your front, that I am in the i)rcscnce of brave men ! 
So brave that I take my hat off in your presence, and thank you. 
in our country's name, for your great valor !" No soldier who 



20 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

heard these words will be likely to forget them, nor the appear- 
ance of Rosecrans as he addressed us, hat in hand. 

During the afternoon, the Brigade was ordered to reconnoitre 
to the front. We felt our way for two miles or more, till we 
reached the Rebel hospital. Here we rescued Colonel Mower, 
of the nth Missouri, who, early in the day, mistaking the ene- 
my's -troops for ours, had been wounded and taken prisoner. 

After the battle, came McPherson with a brigade of infantry 
from Jackson, Tenn. He had been compelled to make a wide 
detour, and came to us through Farmington. His troops were 
fresh, and he was accorded the advance, when the next morning 
we moved forward in pursuit of the retreating Rebels. We 
heard artillery at the Hatchie, where Ord had met and stopped 
them, but were not close enough to prevent Van Corn's escape 
across the river to the south. That night, when several officers 
were at McPherson's tent, a courier brought despatches and 
some mail, and there McPherson received his commission as a 
Major- Greneral. McPherson seemed surprised at this, and said 
"he had not earned his first star yet." When we had advanced 
as far as Ripley, the army was ordered back to Corinth, General 
Grant deeming it not prudent to push further. Here, quietly in 
camp for several days, we had time to measure and to mourn 
our heavy losses. 

When General Grant's army moved southward, heading for 
the rear of Vicksburg, the Brigade, now joined to Hamilton's 
division, moved on the left. Through Holly Springs we 
marched, and on to Oxford. Here, late one evening, the infantry 
was ordered to take the cars forthwith for Jackson, in our rear. 
Next day three trains, each bearing a regiment, reached Jackson, 
Tenn. The other had been halted at Bethel, on the way. For- 
rest, the great Confederate raider, has crossed the Tennessee and 
destroyed our rail connection with the north, and we had come 
to aid in driving him away. After some marches and counter- 
marches we found ourselves near the enemy. Colonel Dunham, 
of Indiana, was sent ahead with a brigade to intercept his march 
at Parker's Cross Roads, and we were to follow the next morning. 
At four o'clock we started and marched till daylight, when a 
halt was made for breakfast. That over, we moved on, and soon 
the sound of cannon in our front advised us that Forrest was 
attacking Dunham's Brigade. And then began a struggle in 



fOLrMHUS, OHIO. 21 

which leffs told. Witliiii an hour and a lialf vdii inarclied seven 
miles without a halt, with ranks well clo.sed ; and when a hill 
was reached whence Forrest's men and <r,ni.s were seen, you 
formed in line of battle on the douhle-iiuick, and went down for 
them with snch good will, that every Kehel irun unlinihored and 
in action was yours within live minutes, and Forrest's forces 
were galloping away. Not all, however, for maiiv had dis- 
mounted in the fight, and their horses left in the rear were ours, 
and their riders must surrender. You captured here six funs, 
four hundred horses and three hundred and si.xty officers and 
men of this hold raider's comnumd. Ani(»ng the officers was 
Major Strange, of Forrest's staff, who ilemanded exemption 
from arrest. He was under a tiag of truce, he said, and claimed 
to be paroling some of Colonel Dunlianvs men, who had surren- 
dered ! We knew nothing of any surrender, nor of any flag, and 
of course we held him prisoner. And it is due to Colonel Dun- 
ham here to say, that he denied all thoughts of capitulation. 
This action happened on the last day of 1862. A more momen- 
tous battle, then raging at Stone River, so ahsorV)ed the public 
mind, that your defeat of Forrest was hardlv nutifed. Y.r 
Forrest was not beaten every day I 

A long and Aveary march behind the Rebel cavalry came next. 
There was no hope that infantry could overtake Forrest's well 
mounted force, but orders must be obeyed. We had no train 
and nothing in our haversacks ; so we waded through the knee- 
deep mud, scaled Avith thin ice, camping each night near to 
some mill, where we ground corn enough to last a day. The 
sequel proved that this march cost more lives than we had lost 
in fighting Forrest. 

From the Tennessee river, where the retreating Rebels crossed, 
we marched to Corinth. Here the garrison was living on half 
rations. But when General Dodge learned how you had suf- 
fered, saw how you needed food and rest, full rations were issued 
you, and tents and clothing, till we had cause to thank our stars 
that our lines had fallen in sueh pleasant plai-es, and we had 
Dodge for our commander. 

When (rrant directed everything at Memphis to i-ome to him 
at Vicksburg, the Ohio Brigade was ordered to nnireh and gar- 
rison the former city. This was your single " soft spot " of the 
war. Excei)ting this, your lot was always at the front : but here 



32 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

for some months you lounged in camp, guarded the gardens, 
flirted with the hidies, and seldom missed a "good square meal." 

When Sherman, coming up from Vicksburg with the loth 
corps, started across for Chattanooga, General Dodge was ordered 
to fall in and march with his command. Dodge asked that we 
might join and move with his division. The order directing 
this was grateful. We were tired of the dullness of camp in 
Memphis and gladly turned our faces again toward Corinth. 
Stopping at Corinth but a day we moved onward to luka, and 
reported there to Sherman. When Sherman started eastward, 
we awaited Dodge, then crossed the Tennessee "with him and 
marched as his advance, camping some miles ahead of the divi- 
sion, and exchanging signals every night with rockets. 

We had marched on through Pulaski, when a courier from 
General Sherman brought orders for us to halt, and put the 
Nashville road in order. Next morning the Brigade moved south 
to Prospect, where the railroad crosses the Elk river, and encamped 
for winter. There you re-enlisted as veterans, and from Prospect 
went to spend the holidays with the dear ones at home. 

Returning again to Prospect, you scon moved further south, 
and early in the spring you crossed the Tennessee, and took 
possession of Decatur, Ala. This movement, made at night, 
was novel to us and full of interest. Some seventy boats, 
secretly moored in a little stream flowing into the river some 
miles above, were quietly filled with men ; the first, taking as 
many as it would carry, who in line of battle would stand on the 
extreme right of the Brigade ; the next, those who would stand 
next, and so on ; the last bearing those whose place was on tlic left. 
Three regiments filled the boats. The oars were muffled and skilled 
oarsmen from the ranks were chosen, who, as soon as we had 
landed were to recross the river and bring more troops. We floated 
with the current, each boat following its leader in close order so 
quietly that even the ducks, covering the river for miles, not 
once took the alarm. When we reached the point where a 
friendly picket advised us we were nearly abreast the town, every 
boat, at the command, "by the left flank," headed for the 
southern shore, the oarsmen now pulling their best strokes. A 
few shots were fired by the Eebel outposts as we landed, but so 
well was the arrangement carried out, that tlie regiments were 
up the bank and in line of battle within two minutes. 



COLUMKUS, OHIO. 23 

Day was just breaking, but a dense fog sluit everything from 
sight whicli was fifty yards away. Colonel Sprague was direc- 
ted to sweep around to form the left, and a])proach the town 
from a southwesterly direction. Colonel Swaync followed, so 
as to approach from the south, wiiile Churchill marched from 
the east, his right resting on the river. The 9th Illinois liad 
been sent to cross below the town, and was to cover the westerly 
side from the Cortland road to the river below ; and thus we 
hoped to stop all avenues by which the Johnnies could escape. 
But, like many other plans dependent for success u])on the 
exact co-operation of two columns, moving independently, this 
failed. Sprague had been cautioned not to let his left extend 
beyoud the (/ortland road, for fear that in the dense fog he might 
be tiring on the 9th Illinois, or be tired u}>on by them. But the 
Illinois regiment was delayed in crossing, and thus a gap was 
left through which the enemy escaped. Si)rague killed a 
lieutenant, on the wing as it were, when they were running, 
and it was said wounded some others, but neither Swayne nor 
Churchill got a single shot. But now we found the boats 
inadequate to span the river, and a dozen more must be con- 
structed to complete the bridge which would connect us with 
our base. As we had not a gun nor horse across as yet, we 
were somewhat nervous, and lost no time till the bridge was 
finished, the next day. We also strongly fortified our position, 
after which we occasionally marched out a coajjlc of miles or so 
to skirmish with the enemy. 

Before starting on the Atlanta campaign the forces were re- 
organized, and you found yourselves in dilTerent brigades. So 
here the Ohio Brigade passed out of sight. Yet in their new- 
positions these regiments had other struggles and other tri- 
umi)hs. At Resaca, the 43d, under Swayne, was specially 
distinguished, ami again before Atlanta. At Dallas, the 2Tth 
had opportunity to show its old-time valor. At Nickajack, this 
regiment, uiuler Churchill, and the 39th, now led by Noyes, 
charged the Rebels in their works, and drove everything before 
them. It was a costly charge, for with many other gallant souls. 
Noyes was shot down. He only lost a leg, but it was a total 
loss to us, since he never rejoined his regiment. At Decatur, 
the 63d fought valiantly against great odds, till Swayne could 
bring the trains to a place of safety, aiul won fresli laurels for 
themselves, and also for their old coiuniander. Spnigue. 



24 REUNION^ OHIO BRIGADE, 

Before Atlanta, on the 32d of July, the 27th and 39th ren- 
dered their greatest service of the war. A great opportunity 
was here made most of. Upon the valor of the 16th corps 
rested the safety of all our trains, and perhaps that of a part of 
the Army of the Tennessee. It is safe to say no regiments of 
the corps had more responsibility in the great battle than did 
these two ; none certainly proved truer to their trust. Twice 
they charged the enemy who essayed to take possession of the 
open field where they were fighting, and twice they drove him 
back ingloriously to tlie woods. 

After Atlanta we all marched down to the sea. When com- 
ing homeward through the Carolinas, the 43d lost the services 
of its commander, Swayne, as brave, and what means far more, 
as faithful an officer, as any in our ranks. When that cannon 
shot destroyed his leg, and we sent him in an ambulance to the 
rear, we hardly dared hope that we should meet again. Soon 
after this event we were made joyous by the surrender of Joe 
Johnson's army, the last obstacle which stood between us and 
those homes and loved ones we were longing to rejoin. 

I have been reminded, especially when attempting to describe 
the battle whose anniversary we have chosen for this gathering, 
of an old adage which says, that "no two soldiers ever saw a 
battle with the same eyes." If some soldier in the ranks, or 
some officer in the line of file-closers,' listening to-night, has 
heard of incidents he did not notice ; or, what is quite as proba- 
ble, if his own eyes took in some thrilling scene which to him 
seems as important as anything that I have mentioned, and he 
is wondering why it is omitted, it will only be another proof of 
the truth of that old proverb. I have thought it better on an 
occasion like this, standing before so many witnesses whose 
opportunities to observe were as good as mine, to give, faith- 
fully as I could, simply those pictures which live in my own 
memory. What was observed by others, I leave for them to tell. 

It is difficult in such a sketch as this to call by name even 
those who were prominent. Yet Churchill, commander of the 
27th, in the great battle of Atlanta ; Lynch, next in rank, shot 
through and through, yet still most mercifully spared ; Brown, 
heading the 63d until shot down on that same day ; McDowell 
and Weber, gallant leaders of the 39th ; and Parks of the 43d, 
always conspicuous in a fight: these seem to suggest themselves. 



r-OLUMHlS, OHIO. 25 

But who sliall cull tlic roll of tlu- bruvo l)oys who fou^'ht these 
battles y the mimes of those who died, or of those who lived to 
see tiie end? Men of the ranks I yo}i did the work, and yours it 
is to fully share the honor of every victory woo. In all the 
skirmishes and combats, in all the battles which now belong to 
history, you who bore the musket, share etiually with those who 
carried the sword, a measure of such honor as is due. Hut 
there was one act in the great drama of the war, which was 
played by you alone. One picture stands before us, whenever 
we turn back, which is grander than all else: a scene in which 
no officer appears — a movement of the rank and file. It is no 
direct assault upon the enemy, yet it does more to rob him of 
all hope than any battle of the war. 'Tis when the exj)iration 
of the soldier's term of service is drawing nigh, and no sign 
appearing that the war will end, our Government, with fresh 
alarm, asks: ''What shall be done when the old soldiers are 
discharged?'' It is when our President, trusting the men who 
first responded to his call, looks in their ranks once more, and 
calls upon these ]irivate soldiers, who for thirty Aveary months 
have toiled and fought, to enter the lists again: this time for all 
the war. 

For awhile these ranks are silent I They are thinking of 
those Northern homes they long so much to see ; of those dear- 
est ones of earth, so near to them while dreaming, so far off 
when awaking. 

The North, with bated breath, listens for the response ! The 
South, with fatal blindness, is gathering her last strength to give 
the fatal stab to the nation's heart ! The monarchies across the 
sea are watching with a scornful smile for the downfall of the 
young Republic I 

And still the ranks are silent I 

From the cotton fields and rice swamjis of the gulf, the black 
man lifts his dusky brow, and wonders if the freedom he has 
dreamed about will really come. In the hospitals behind our 
lines, and in the distant prisons of the South, are comrades, 
whisjiering as they ask each other, " Will our life-blood ebb 
away in vain ?" ^ 

But now the silence breaks' The measured tread of an army 
keeping step is heard ; and that wondrous scene unfolds whieii 
the whole world beholds — the marshaling of the veteran hosts ! 



y6 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

The soldiers of the ranks stand fortli ! In the grim school of 
war have they been taught how much this step may cost ; in 
the same school have realized how much there is at stake. And 
now, with purpose fixed, these warriors shout forth their grand 
response: "Muster us again ! for all the war muster us in !" till 
the mighty chorus is echoing gloriously from every hill top of 
the North, and rumbling ominously in the remotest valley of 
the South ! From this patriotic hour, was the doom of the 
rebellion sealed ! 



ADDRESS OF GENERAL WAGER SWAYNE. 

Dear Old Friends : — Old faces bring old times, and we 
are face to face with four whole years we lived together long ago. 
It is getting to be so long ago that the face of a well grown man 
will often tell us that he was too young to go to war in 1861. 
Still, such were the things we shared, and such the ties result- 
ing, that each face recalls some feature of our common life, until 
all these multiplied impressions take possession of us, and we 
are our former selves again. Such is the meeting of old com- 
rades of the drum. It is a living, waking dream, so real that 
we see the men, and hear the words, and feel the hearts of long 
ago. 

And yet there is a veil of time between us and that long ago. 
We look from one side to the other and compare. It is only a 
thought when we meet, then the present is lost in the past ; 
to-morrow, when the present has returned, we shall compare 
more sharply from the nearness of the scenes. And all those 
things which took us to the war, and kept us there, and brought 
about that it should end the way it did, will come up then as 
having once controlled and shaped our lives, and then, through 
men like us, controlled and shaped this country of to-day. 

It is a happy feature that the personal memories are kind. 
The selfishness and injuries, if such there were, are gone, with all 
the little interests from which they rose. Only the ties remain. 
The hard campaigning is remembired chiefly for the way we all 
got through it ; even the dreadful incidents of war are full of 
tender interest, as stopping places in the lives of men to whom 



COLUMIUS, OHIO. 27 

we were attached. Tlie brighter side of everything remains ; 
only the dark decays. 

The best fruit of the struggle is that we have a countrv. 
Against this we may measure every evil with a net result of 
good. The vivid, flashing picture which has been recalled to- 
night, until the village and the woodland, and what took place 
between, with every fort, and road, and line of troops and column 
of attack, is visible, all its lines in gold instead of in black, be- 
cause we have a country. The gallant soul of Kirby Smith, and 
all the worth of all our dead — these losses all we suffer as ( Jod wills, 
since thus we have a country. Other and larger flelds, even the 
vast field of the war. and tiie dead of the whole country, all these 
fields glisten with victory shining through from this immeasura- 
ble background, and the tears are made a bow of promise, span- 
ing all with the great legend of "our country." Countries have 
often been where life became intolerable and men were voluntary 
exiles ; but the saddest part of exile was being without a country. 
The sorrows of the wanderer were all summed up when he styled 
himself an exile. You can recall this love of country as it an- 
swered to the calls of 18G1. Strengthened by sym])athy, of 
oourse, often enthusiastic with ambition, or inspired by wrath 
at slavery and arrogance, or else by zeal to spread the area of 
freedom; but underlying and cementing all, that self-same love 
of country which has always, everywhere, set uj) the marks of 
progress of mankind. I am not here to ferret out its roots in 
the philosophy of man ; it no more needs analysis to you than 
right and wrong require to be justified m theory to strong aiul 
honest hearts. The country called, men came; the country 
lives, it is enough. The legend of this land of homes is liberty 
AND uxiON". God had vouchsafed to us to be a family of 
states, enjoying one land, the home of a great peopk-. A dozen 
blessings were all ours, each of which in time j^ast some nation 
has been glad to buy with tears and blood and treasure. Freedom 
of worship, education, trade : security of person. ])roperty and 
travel; wise laws of debt, and of (K'sci'iit. :ind a magniticcnt 
pr )vision for the shattered mind and tlu- <leli<'ient body, all 
were ours. The peace and strength that came from union kept 
them all in l\\v calm ways of hiw. The sword was taken in 
resistance to the law, the cause that took it i)erisjicd in obedience 
to the law. It has perished. The evil that it did lives after 



28 KEUNIOX OHIO BRIGADE, 

it, but without it. Tlie will to rule or ruin rises still, and 
plots, and plots, but plans no violence. Once all its rage was 
rational, because it might succeed in an attempt to separate, and 
afterward control by force where it had failed in right. No one 
could say with certainty its ways meant ruin and not rule ; no 
one could j^oint the passionate and misguided to its miserable 
end. It was at liberty to vaunt, and grew by its own motion. 
Now all such passion works against the gravitation of events. 
There may be rage, but its resort is fraud, not violence ; and 
fraud is on its good behavior, even when successful for a time. 
There is no cause to fear for the fruits of the war, there is 
no further trial for the country but its own capacity for 
freedom. It has met hitherto whatever call this made ; the 
memories of IS'il will prove to it henceforth a storehouse inex- 
liaustible of patriotic feeling. The war has certified the Union 
with a seal as broad as fate ; the blessings of the Union are the 
purchase of the war. Even the homeless soldier, in a land of 
homes, may feel that he is part and parcel of the purchase 
money of them all. 

The war has vindicated liberty as well. Not as its main end 
or moving cause, since slavery as it was before the war was not 
a breach of the first compact of union. That agreement once 
broken, and broken in the interest of slavery, slavery itself stood 
under ban as the true culprit, the destroyer of our peace. Its 
fate was properly and lawfully one of the fruits of war, one of 
the terms of peace. A blessed thing it was to take the curse 
away, and do it in God's name, and with a lawful right, and for 
the country's sake. The evils since are proper subjects for wide 
differences which have no business here, but no man's heart can 
well refuse to share the Joy which freedmen feel in liberty and 
in the hopes which rise from opportunity for industry, for fam- 
ily life, for education of their children, and for all those things 
which make our lives worth having for ourselves. Nor can a 
man with children of his own refuse to sympathize with children 
of that race in higher hopes from all these things from having 
had thoni from their youth. It is not union only that the war 
has brought, it is a blessed liberty as well. 

So has the war destroyed the causes of the Avar. We who 
survive see sharply sorrows that remain, — the widow and the 
fatherless, — sometimes the blighted life. For these, and for all 



COLUMHUS, OHIO. 29 

those whom we remember gone before, God has iv))aitl tliis 
people witli a country. We can l>nt look from them to Ilim for 
ilnal reeom})ense to them, believing that He doeth all thingH 
well . 



ADDRESS OF GENERAL EATON. 

Mu. President : — Comrades, survivors of the Ohio Brigade, 
my heart fills with emotion as I am permitted to salute you face 
to face. 

Fitly we gather for these memorial hours in the capital of the 
State under whose auspices we first mustered. What pictures 
each memoi'y gathers from the experience of the few intervening 
years, the gain and loss of friends, the struggles and triumphs of 
the field and of civil life ! 

It has been said of Henry Clay that in his later years he used 
to repeat the words, " The days that are passed and gone," with 
such pathos and melancholy beauty, that no man could hear him 
without shedding tears. But the memories of our army days 
that are passed and gone need no orator's heli> to awaken our 
deepest emotions. 

Richest, most precious in these reunions are personal inter- 
changes of experiences and incidents ; and reluctantly do I to- 
day occupy your time with these words of formal address. The 
more thrilling incidents I leave to others. During the moments 
you assign me I would speak from the standpoint of our mutual 
relations from which I was ordered, to my serious regret, to 
assume other but most arduous duties. 

We recall again that day of departure, the hurry and prei)ara- 
tion, the mingling of friends, the tears, the partings; we hear 
the call of the bugle and the roll of the drum giving the order 
to form, we behold the bright array, the imposing regimental 
line as all awaited the order, " niarch ! '' Then we left all that 
was near and dear save the flag for which we fought, withdrew 
our hands from industry to grasp arms In-ight fore(»nHict : now 
we have left behind us the sword with red rust on it and have 
turned aside from our present ])ursuits for a day to bind with 
new ties of fellowship the bundle of army memories, to renew 



30 KEUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

onr pledges and gather inspiration for ourselves and our children. 

Now we gather with ranks broken, men and officers mingling 
without regard to rank, or company, or regiment. We are struck 
with the fact that in no other land have these reunions such 
freedom, and frequency, and force. 

Our presence here, the scenes of peril and escape which we 
recall, we attribute to no chance. Over all in which we partici- 
pated or which passed before us, whether it were the great pop- 
ular uprising for the Union, the ocean swell of patriotism, the 
triumph of liberty, the conflicts and return of armies, corps, 
divisions, brigades, regiments, and companies and individuals, 
we discover a Guiding Hand ; our hearts reverently acknowl- 
edge a Father's favor. 

I attempt not to tell the story of the war, nor to compare 
with other wars its great armies, its vast field of operations, its 
duration in years, or its fatalities. No roll call is needed to 
remind us that all who went out with us are not here to-day. 
Visions of scenes in which they mingled pass before us. Each 
recalls his fallen comrade, each company and regiment its dead ; 
the records tell when they perished as sacrifices for country and 
freedom, and were buried in the haste of war so far from home, 
and often far from each other, without stone or slab to mark their 
resting places. 

But to-day, as we bow in sorrow over their dead forms stricken 
down in battle or in hospital, and tell to each other the stories 
of their valor, and remember the bitter tears shed for them by 
the bereaved ones at home who sent them forth with their God 
speed, to receive them here no more forever — as we gather in 
this memorial service, what strikes our sense ? what now fixes 
our thought ? No trumpet call, no re-appearance of these cher- 
ished forms ; for this Ave await, with them, that last grand 
reveille ; yet we decipher their names ; we read their rank 
written on white slabs as they stood in company and regiment 
beside us on the day of departure. 

The nation they helped to save, acting its part in the provi- 
dence of God by no command of monarch, but by the volun- 
tary act of a grateful people, has gathered their scattered bodies 
and given them honorable sepulture and marked their 
resting-places, and now tends and guards them with loving 
care. And thither, by a fitting custom, from year to year the 



COLIMIU-S, (illio. 31 

patriot goes on a bright May day to raise t lie Hag and scatter 
flowers : to plant tlie germs of the beautiful : and tiiu.s in the 
presence of the dead shall he tell to the latest day the st(.rv of 
their heroism. 

Our broken ranks always remind us of these absfiii comrades , 
they cannot return to us, but year by year, we in our inarch are 
passing over to them. 

My duties among you brought me into close relations with the 
inner life of many men and otyieers. They talked to me most 
freely when they were most anxious about their dear ones at 
home ; when ill or in trouble, or in moments of serious thouglit 
when, weighing the chances of war, they tried to forecast the 
mysteries of the future, understand the secrets of eternity and 
to speak some words to be remembered after them. These con- 
fidences were not limited to my own regiment. The additional 
duty of brigade sanitary inspector was assigned me and increased 
my acquaintance in other regiments. When death stood near 
soldier or otJicer of the Brigade, such was the prevailing inti- 
macy that acts of watching and sympathy were not limited to 
regimental lines. Indeed, the Brigade was closely united by the 
ties of soldiery affection. All mourned when so many of the 
brave fell at Corinth ; other regiments, hardly less than their 
own, grieved over the loss of the cultured, manly Colonel Smith 
and Adjutant Hyle. 

As I became acquainted with my own regiment, the "^Tth, and 
then with the 39th, and afterwards with the 4'M, and the G3d, 
I was deeply impressed with the evidence I met of the high 
motives that had brought these officers and men to the field. If 
there was one in the Brigade who volunteered to gratify a senti- 
ment of revenge, or with malice toward the South or toward 
the Confederates, I never knew it. 

Accorded the privilege of tenting with the colonel of my regi- 
ment, who by his rank, after the resignation of Colonel Groes- 
beck, naturally came to the command of the several regiments 
as they were organized into a brigade, I had the best opportunity 
of knowing how earnestly he sought for himself and the entire 
command, the highest manhood, and the most honorable en- 
deavor, and how faithfully lie studied every situation and conned 
works on tactics and authorities on military questions : while the 
free circulation accorded me by all the officers and men. gave 



32 RE-UNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

me the best evidence of the extent to which his wishes and efforts 
were shared by them. 

Tliere was satisfaction in associating with persons of sucli 
character. The prevalence of these higher sentiments were tlie 
best supports of order and discipline, and the best safeguards 
against the vices that naturally spring up in so close an associa- 
tion of large numbers of men. The social discussions often 
evinced an intimate knowledge of state and national affairs. 

Many had great fondness for reading. The 27th, before leav- 
ing St. Louis, as a base of operations in 1861, organized a 
library of several hundred volumes which was preserved through 
the various vicissitudes of the march and camp, till its case gave 
way and its transportation became impossible. It was the first 
library of the kind I knew of in the service. I remember, too, 
that the same regiment raised a fund by companies and sub- 
scribed for some two hundred dollars' worth of newspapers and 
magazines, which came to them by mail whenever that beneficent 
agency of Uncle Sam could reach them. The list embraced all 
the best American monthlies and a goodly number of represen- 
tative religious and secular weeklies, besides a fair share of picto- 
rial publications. 

Who does not remember the delight of the Brigade in music ? 
Who does not recall the hallowed influences suggested by the 
tuneful voices and the bands when we gathered for Sabbath 
services or at the burial of our dead ? Who does not remember 
how in camp they cheered our monotonous days and helped to 
stir in our hearts, 

" Dear domestic recollections. 
Home-born loves and old affections," 

and to renew within us jDurposes of endurance and valor ? 

At this moment there comes before me that beautiful encamp- 
ment, in early winter, on Post Oak Creek. The day's march 
was ended. The ground sloped toward the stream fringed by 
frost-stricken foliage. The flame of camp-fires rose and passed 
away in curling smoke. Moon-light, as mellow as ever fell 
upon valley or jDrairie, added its beauty and inspiration to the 
scene. The confused noises of the camp were filling the air 
when one of the bands struck up a familiar air and the confusion 



COLlMIiUs, OHIO. 33 

ceased ; the eiieuinpmo.it oukl fitly have adopted the hmffuaire 
of the poet — *' 

" How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this l)arik ; 
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music 
Creep in our ears ; soft stillness and the night 
Become the touches of sweet harmony." 

During ihi" long eiieamixnents at Sedalia and Clear Creek 
sonietliiiio- of the Prussian army school voluntarily arose ; men 
studied, some the elements of our English education, and others 
such branches as Gernuiu or Algebra. Out of these conditions 
of intelligent and patriotic activity, each regiment became capa- 
ble of organizing a whole Fourtli of July in itself— boys, men, 
speakers and listeners, music and toasts, to say nothing of flags' 
drums, cannon and the rest. 

It is not inappropriate for us to remember by what beneficent 
providence Ohio soldiers, this brigade included, received this 
character. Ohio occu])ied a peculiar position, especially in ref- 
erence to the newer States, while partially encircled by two of 
the old thirteen. 

Writers have i)ointed out that France, from her geographical 
situation and her national character, has occupied a*])eculiar 
position in reference to all European history, in some measure 
giving color to all great events and receiving from them. 

Ohio as a State occupied a peculiar relation to all the States 
that joined in defence of the Union. Their transit east and 
west passed through it, communicating and receiviuir effect. 
Moreover the center of our population as a nation was soon to 
rest over Ohio. Her soil was included in the territory set apart 
to a high order of civilization by that early congressional enact- 
ment known as the Ordinance of 1787, a legislative act rarely 
paralleled in human history, whether Ave consider its inherent 
wisdom or the far-reaching consequences to flow from it. 

Slavery was forever prohibited and perpetual liberty decreed, 
not on paper merely. The measure was in the nature of a con- 
stitutional act, and besides carried tlie means of its efUcient 
enforcement in that other [)n)vi,si()u which required the estab- 
ment of schools for the instruction of youth in intelligence and 
virtue, and provided in jiart the means for their mainteiumce, 
by setting apart for that purpose a fixed portion for the public 
domain. 

3 



34 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

Wishing to confirm some impressions in regard to the gratui- 
tous publication of those works wliich had especially contributed 
to the progress of our common schools, such as the School and 
Schoolmaster, and Stowe's and Mann's Report on Education 
Abroad, I wrote Professor Stowe. He replied that the legisla- 
ture gave him five hundred dollars towards his expenses ; that he 
could not tell how often his Report had been republished, but he 
had not received any other pecuniary compensation ; but when 
he saw what part Ohio took in the war for the Union, and 
reflected how much of this was due to lier common schools, he 
felt abundautly rewarded. 

Ohio giving and receiving from such vantage ground, it is not 
to be thought a matter of chance or even of surprise that the 
war found so many born within her limits, or having lived here, 
prepared for its severest trials or highest responsibilities. It is 
not inappropriate to the occasion, nor invidious to other men, 
that the names of Macpherson, Sheridan, Sherman and Grant 
leap unbidden to our lips. Nor is it unbecoming that we should 
yield to those promptings accordant with patriotic judgment 
and due to national pride, and acknowledge our satisfaction 
over the unparalleled recognition our great leader — great whether 
we regard him as friend, as general or as president — has received 
from all classes in the foreign lands which he has visited. 

Nor has Ohio ceased to have this pre-eminence. Still a son 
of this State is the chief magistrate of the nation, than whom 
none is purer or more patriotic ; unimpeached and unimpeach- 
able. To enumerate all of her sons yet called to positions of 
trust and toil, would be impossible. 

The great mass of our soldiery not only had a measure of intel- 
ligence, they had occupations, and more or less special training 
from experience or in the schools. 

This Brigade drew not alone from Ohio's own institutions of 
learning, but from those of other States ; even those old seats of 
learning, Dartmouth and Yale, sending their alumni, and thus 
contributing to their ancient store of learning. West Point 
furnished a colonel ; one of our surgeons, born and educated in 
Ohio, brought to us the benefit of his learning in the Prussian 
service, during the Crimean War ; while many other institutions 
of learning were represented, not only in the line, but among 
the rank and file. 



COLUMBUS, OHIO. 35 

Till' necessities of the iiiiiicli. tlic caini), the buttle, the wicge, 
funiished many illustrations of the ai>tiu'ss and skill of large 
numbers in earpentry, wagon making, house liuilding, brid^'e 
building, and in the higher dej)arttnents of niecluinie.s and 
engineering. How many wielded the pen of a ready writci-. the 
newspapers of that })eriod can best tell. 

This prevalence of culture and character, among officers and 
men, made possible the great endeavors of charity that sent their 
relief among the soldiers and i)eople, black and white, along the 
lines of our army in which women won so many well-deserved 
meeds of praise. The career of the Ohio Brigade in itself alone 
furnished proof sufKcient to explode the theory that the more 
ignorant the man the better the soldier. 

The con([Ucring power of an army is less and less often meas- 
ured by brute forces. Intelligence, skill and self-control avail 
alike in the resistance to disease, in the endurance of the march, 
and in the shock of battle — in every thing that contributes to 
the effectiveness of an army. 

In the light of later events it is profitable to remember that 
in 180-"), thirty in every hundred of the French army could not 
read and write ; while of the Prussian soldiery, the following 
year, less than four jier cent, were illiterate. 

And let us not forget another elonu'nt that added to our 
efficiency in the field — the influence of home. How telling upon 
the spirits and endeavors of the Brigade was the arrival of the 
mail, bringing good words from mothers, wives, daughters, ami 
the fathers, the brothers, and the sons, who endured none the 
less in spirit because they watched, and toiled and waited at 
home. 

Of mothers, wives, sisters and daughters keeping the homes 
of the Brigade, there were many who would not suffer in com- 
parison with the Paulas or Per^)etuas who, like stars, few and 
far between, shed their radiance over the moral darkness of 
Roman history. Their " hapi)iness was" not ''in extravagant 
attire," nor ''in elaborate hair dressings," nor " in rings and 
bracelets," nor "in a retinue of servants," nor "in gilded 
apartments," nor " in luxurious couches," nor "in voluptuous 
dances," nor " in exciting scenes," nor " in demoralizing spec- 
tacles," nor "in frivolous gossip," nor in "inglorious idleness." 

No matter whether poor or rich, high or low. as put down on 



36 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

fashion's list, their minds were informed, they knew ^v\\y and 
whither the husbands, or fathers, or brothers, or sons had gone to 
peril their lives ; their hearts were full of purest affection for 
the Union to be saved and for their absent ones ; for them their 
hands wrought and their prayers ascended day and night. Their 
tears mingled with the ink as they wrote letters the words of 
which were laden with a holy power, helj)ing and inspiring when 
most needed. 

The intensity of military life brought out the vital differences 
of character. The sun's rays melt the wax and harden the 
clay. These experiences found some officers and men nnable to 
stand the test, but by far a larger number responded with im- 
provement to all there was in their experience of the better and 
the worse of army life. 

Temptations, exposures, perils, strengthened them, sharpened 
their wits and helped to prepare them for a higher career in 
whatever there was before them. They honored their own pro- 
motion ; they were faithful to all trusts ; they left the service 
larger men than they entered it. This was especially true of 
not a few young men. Their education in the school of the 
army was perilous in the extreme, but it gave them method, ex- 
actness, submission to orders, endurance, decision, power to act 
with others and yet by themselves, courage, nerve-fibre. These 
have since made their mark in private and public life. It would 
be pleasing to recall the high posts they have filled. Not a few 
of them are still conspicuous as leaders in their several spheres. 
Every now and then we note the closing of some noble career 
which began with our Brigade. 

In 1861, we opened the book of beginners ; now we read from 
its closing pages. What a record for our country is included ! Our 
Union saved, our freedom universal, the great forces of Chris- 
tian liberty at work for the elevation of every American citizen, 
wherever he stood in the late strife. Our course among the 
nations no longer impeded by domestic slavery, we take our 
place untrammeled in the onward march of mankind. 

What a record, too, have these years made in the world 
around us ! 

Japan, where the story of Washington long pointed to the 
influence of an unselfish ruler, has broken from her seclusion, 
sent her sons around the world to gather wisdom to conduct her 
education, her industries and her commerce. 



COLUMBl'S, (»I1I0. 37 

Even Africa, whoso daikiicss has been penetrated Ijy tlio sons 
of the Saxon, calls out for the culture, trade and other condi- 
tions of Christian civilization. The map of Euroi)c \h re- 
arranged ; Prussia, from her subordinate position, has placed 
herself at the head of the German Em|)ire ; and France, the 
beantiful France, so dear to the hearts of our fathers, is a 
republic. And these are but index words, pointing to the un- 
numbered pages of history, lilled with the record of the grandest 
events that mark the years since first we met. 

Yes, comrades, we do well to jiause in our course, whetlier we 
consider ourselves as individuals only, or as citizens of this great 
nation, or as members of the great human family ; and to renew 
our jjledges of hdelity to each other, to t)ur country and to our 
God. Our work is not done. In recalling our memories we 
experience constant relief in tiie conviction that the past is 
secure; yet our hopes are disturbed by the uncertainties of the 
future. Toward transforming these into certainties for our- 
selves, our country, our whole country, to be united as never 
before, and for the world at large, we need to bend all <>ur ener- 
gies. 

" New occasions teacli new duties: 

Time makes ancient good uncouth; 
They must upward still and onward 

Who would keep abreast of truth." 

The United States, not attempting to exert an influence on 
the balance of power between nations, and not hampered by 
foreign jealousies, all, with great readiness come to us aiul 
receive from us. 

The English language, now sixikeu l>y eighty or ninety mil- 
lions of people, taught in the schools of Europe, spoken liy a 
hundred thousand young men in India, and wherever mission- 
aries or commerce have jjcnetrated Africa, studied in .lapan and 
Pekin, the j)rcvailing tongue iti Australia and the islands of the 
sea, is more likely than any other to become the universal lan- 
guage of commerce and international communication. 

The language we speak invites us to no "pent-up I'tica,'' 
but points us to great fields for enterj)rise. 

Out of our free institutions, our homes, our schools, our asso- 
ciations, secular and religious, our i)ractice in a free gov«'rnment 
and our defense of it, have already come great achievements. 



38 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

However ardently we love our star-si^angled banner, we gain in 
understanding its meaning by going abroad and Avitnessing the 
consideration given it among those that struggle for the eleva- 
tion of themselves and of mankind. 

Our schools, however they may suffer in age or any other 
points in comparison with those of other countries, have already 
given us writers of prose and poetr}^ scientists, statesmen, 
explorers, navigators, engineers, missionaries and men in all 
great enterprises, the peers of those in any land. Should these 
schools become all their friends desire, training the whole 
people so that no one child can escape the possession of a sound 
mind in a sound body, how immeasurably our present national 
power will be multiplied, physically, mentally and morally, 
while our position among the nations will be corresiDondingiy 
advanced in all the arts of peace and war. In accomplishing 
this, how much evil have we to throw out, how much of good 
to acquire and conserve ! 

Just now all questions are shadowed by the hard times. There 
is violent crowding and elbowing for bread, and for opportuni- 
ties. False blows are dealt ; falsehood is put in the place of 
truth ; caprice and passion supplant candor, deliberation and 
reason ; right is treated as wrong, and wrong as right ; opinions, 
measures, acts and men are given a false value. Mobs and the 
brutal in man are sought as remedies. Blindly, some would 
pull down the pillars on wliich rest our beneficent institutions ; 
they would blot out the sun because it is cloudy. 

There is bread enough, but not in the liands of tlie starving ; 
there is work enough, but not where the laborers are ready to 
do it ; there is capital enough, but it is timid and slow to go 
where there are great risks. 

In encountering these evils and difficulties the soldiers who 
have come out of the late war, benefited instead of harmed, 
have certain advantages. They became acquainted with hard- 
shijos, they learned to dispense with many comforts often thought 
necessaries, and to adapt themselves readily to circumstances. 
How great the change for a million and a half of citizens to 
become soldiers ; how much more surprising to see so many sol- 
diers transformed to peaceful,' dutiful citizens. The scientist 
points us to the fact that a captured pike requires three months 
to learn the position of a sheet of glass in its tank, and when 



COLUMBUS, OHIO. 39 

once tlie associtition is established, it is never again dis-estah- 
lishcd, even though the sheet of glass be taken away. The 
soldier has none of this incapacity for change. His whole mili- 
tary life was teaching him to make the best of things. Ilis 
bravery is proof against false alarms. Before he left the service 
he would not mistake friends for foes, a i)icket for an army ; he 
could not be deceived and put to flight l)y <|uaker guns. lie is 
all honor and manliness. 

Our soldiers went out to save their country, and returned to 
improve and enjoy it; in disturlung times they are for peace ; 
in matters of linance, for their country's honor. The world was 
surprised at their hastening to tlie arts of peace. The histories 
of Marlborough's, Napoleon's, and Wellington's great armies did 
not warrant any such expectation. The fact is, our soldiers and 
officers fought for a patriotic purpose, and therefore never 
ceased to be dutiful citizens. 

True, many plans of life had been deranged or broken off, 
but the main inirjiose remained, to do well something for country 
and mankind. Xot always has reward or api)reciation followed. 
But, on the whole, the soldier honorably maimed has been pen- 
sioned, some have been given good homes, some of their orphans 
have found a parent in the State, and have been supplied with 
home, education, and perhaps a trade. Many have been trusted 
and honored by public positions. 

As a rule, the ancients honored with memorials and mention 
in their records, only the great generals of armies and the 
officers of state. Even modern Europe follows this rule. Here, 
among us, the great exception a])poars : and from Maine west- 
ward, the soldier and sailor iltly share with the general and the 
admiral, the monuments of bronze and granite erected to pro- 
claim to future generations the story of our ]>atriotism. This 
recognition of the common soldier points to the progress of 
civilization. But above the bestowal of the lionor is the greater 
fact, that it was richly deserved. 

From this vantage, our soldiers can neitlu-r he stampeded nor 
drawn away by cajolery. Is our Government held resi)onsil)le for 
hard times ? They are the ones to examine matters till they dis- 
cover that times are hard the world over, that the causes are 
beyond the action of Governments, and that the restoration of 
prosperity will come when every num is in h s place doing with 



40 REUNIOISI^ OHIO BRIGADE. 

his might what his hands find to do. If industry is unbalanced 
by a rush of people to the city, his experience teaches him to go 
to the country, where there is both labor and bread in abundance. 
If improved machinery performs the task by which, so far, he 
has earned his livelihood, his experience teaches him to acquire 
skill in some other profitable pursuit. If there is any wild cry 
for division of capital among laborers, he remembers that it 
would have been suicidal to shoot his captain under the hope of 
increasing his own pay or of gaining the other's commission, 
and he will not now be tempted to commit a crime for the sake 
of gain. He seeks only the benefit and honor that his own right 
arm deserves. Does he hear a cry against the interests and 
foundation of society ? he is their constant defender. If ignor- 
ance, or aristocracy, or sectarianism blindly strike at any of the 
efficient features of our public education, it has not his sym- 
pathy. He has thought out their relation to liberty, union and 
human destiny. 

His change of stand-point during the war has taught him how 
vast our country is, how rich its resources, how manifold the 
capacity of our people ; and when society was upheaved, and 
great caverns opened at the very foundations, be had rare views 
of the bearings of remote causes upon essential good ; he has 
seen the two sides of life, civil and military, of peace and war ; 
he appreciates the army, understands its place and function in 
the state, and would not see it either perverted or destroyed. 
He has a lively appreciation of the free pursuit of happiness, 
guaranteed in our fundamental law, and would perpetuate it 
in spite of the assaults of the idle, the vicious, and the criminal, 
to the last moment of the world's existence. 

But, brothers of the Brigade, the minute hand on the dial- 
plate points us to the steady irresistible tide that bears us on. 
Again Ave must i)art ; may we return to our homes and responsi- 
bilities with a stronger love for country, and higher purposes of 
good for having met ; may we each finish the campaign of life 
under the Great Captaust, and, when our discharge comes, may 
it be accompanied with a crown of victory, and an order to join 
Him in the home — the mansion He has gone to prepare for the 
Soldiers of the Cross. 



Regular Toasts and Responses. 



THE :2Ttii OHIO VOLUNTEP]R IXFANTliY. 
RESPONSE— By fiENKUAi, :\r. Ciukchii.i,. 

Mr. Ckairmax and Gentlkmex : — The mention of the 27th 
Ohio Infantry revives memories very dear to me. It was my 
fortune to share the trials and dangers of tliis regiment for over 
three years, and to command it for eiglit months, during a part 
of its most eventful service ; and it is with recollections and emo- 
tions born only of the march, tiie bivouac and the baptism of 
battle, that I shall attempt to speak of the organization now. 

In one })articular my task is easy ; upon the regiment's record, 
of nearly four years' service, in seven different Southern Stales, 
there rests no stain. Individual cases of unsoldierly conduet 
there were, but in the hour of supreme trial the organization 
never faltered, but would go unilinchingly into the very jaws of 
death, when ordered to do so. 

In view of the others who arc to speak on tins occasion, my 
time will permit but the barest outline of tlie services of the 
regiment; many minor engagements, in which it p:irticipatod, 
cannot be even mentioned. 

The 2Tth was the sixth three-year regiment, organized as such, 
in Ohio. It was raised before the district system was adopted 
by the State ; the enlistments were made mostly in July. lS6i, 
in counties as widely separated as the Ohio River and Lake 
Erie. The officers and men came together at Camp Chase, 
comparative strangers to each other. In consc<iuenco, the regi- 
ment began its service free from the local jealousies often ftdlow- 
ing those raised in one locality. 



42 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

The organization was perfected August 16th, 1861 ; its first 
field officers were John W. Fuller, colonel ; H, G. Kennett, lieu- 
tenant colonel, and Z. S. Spalding, major. The regiment's 
first service was in Missouri, going to St. Louis, August 20, 1861. 

ITS SERVICE IN MISSOURI 

may be stated as follows : It marched over that great State 
lengthwise, crosswise and diagonally, omitting mention of circu- 
lar movements. In September, 1861, it crossed the State from 
St. Louis to Kansas City, attempting by the way to reinforce 
Colonel Mulligan, then besieged in Lexington ; in October, 
marched south-west to Springfield, and in November north to 
Sedalia, and in Febrnary to St. Louis. The last march began in 
snow and ice, and after the snow disappeared vvas prosecuted over 
roads frozen hard enough each morning to bear the artillery, and 
so thawed out in the afternoon as to become bottomless. These 
marches were good seasoning for the service which came after- 
ward. 

The regiment reached St. Louis, February 20th, 1863 ; moved 
by boat to Commerce, marched thence to New Madrid, Mo. , 
and was engaged in all the skirmishes and battles there till the 
capture of that place by our troops. In one action there a 
cannon ball carried away the right leg of each of three men 
marching in one file of the 27th. 

The regiment then crossed the Mississippi, participated in the 
capture of Island Ten, and returned to New Madrid ; going 
thence, in April, with other troops, down the river to Fort 
Pillow. 

This completed the regiment's service in Missouri. It marched 
over one thousand miles in that State, in less that eight months. 
The recollection of those long, hard marches, even at this dis- 
tance of time, gives one a weariness of the legs. 

The river being too high for operations at Fort Pillow, the 
entire command returned, going up the Tennessee River and 
becoming the left wing of Halleck's army, under Pope, operat- 
ing against Corinth, Mississippi The regiment participated in 
the engagements resulting in the capture of that place in the 
spring of 1862. In September and October following it was 
engaged in the 



COLUMHUS, OHIO. 43 

HATTLKS OF UKA AM) (OlMNTll 

The hitter was fought sixteen years ago to-ilay. The "^iilj was 
conspicuously engaged, losing in that action, in killed and 
wounded, seventy men and officers. The behavior of the regi- 
ment in this battle was so gallant as to receive the thanks of 
General Kosecrans on the field, and elicit from him special and 
honorable mention in his official report to (n-neral Orant. 

In November following, the !2?tli formed a })art of the army of 
General Grant, moving into Central Mississippi : was ordered 
back from Oxford, Miss., to Jackson, Tenn., and from the latter 
])lace entered upon a month's camj)aign against Forrest's cav- 
alry, in mid-winter, without tents or camp ecpiipage of any 
kind, and for the most ]nirt of the time without rations, except- 
ing such as the country afforded. But the 2Tth was a gootl 
forager when the exigencies of the service required it ; the men 
combined business with pleasure, in detaching from the pieces 
they were then armed with, the long sword bayonets, and 
throwing them with fatal results at every hog within range ; the 
hog received the blade point first as a rule, in which case "the 
subsequent proceedings interested him no more.'* The defiant 
air and pompous strut of the turkey gobbler were alike impotent 
to save liim or his family ; no barnyard fowl could run or fiy 
fast enough to escape ; nor any rooster so high as to be secure ; 
the men — like the bey after the ground hog — " nrre out of 
meat!'' Every elevation in a garden, giving promise of con- 
taining buried eatable treasures, was leveled as if by magic, and 
candor compels me to add, that the cooking utensils borrowed 
by the boys on that march have not to this day been returned. 
The men never had business that way again, but constant occu- 
pation elsewhere, or doubtless they would have returned the 
skillets and frying pans. 

On December 21st, 18G2. the Rebel cavalry were overtaken at 
Parker's X Roads, engaged and defeated. The regiment bore 
a prominent part in this action and the future movements 
which resulted in driving the Rel)el forces across the Tennessee 
River at Clifton, returning thence to Corinth. This eaminiign 
involved more hardship and suffering than any of the same 
duration made by the regiment during its service. 

In ^ray, the 5>Tth moved to Memi>his, niarchcd from tlini.r. 



4:4 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

in October and November, through Corinth, luka and Eastport, 
to Elk River, at the crossing of the Nashville and Decatur 
Railway ; remained there during the winter of 1863-4, (except- 
ing for the time on veteran furlough in Ohio,) engaged in re- 
pairing the railway and in building a boat bridge across the river. 
In March, the Ohio Brigade, commanded by General Fuller, 
crossed the Tennessee in boats, captured and held Decatur, Ala- 
bama, till May 1st, 1864, when the Brigade began its march to 
Chattanooga to participate in 

THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 

On May 9th, it was in the advance of General Macpherson's 
army, in passing through Snake Creek Gap, in the first move- 
ment on Resacca — then in the rear of the main Rebel army. 
Later the most of the Union army came through this gap — the 
enemy falling back on Resaca. 

The regiment skirmished at Resaca and fought at Dallas and 
Kenesaw Mountain. At Dallas, Captain Green was wounded, 
and Captain Sawyer and Lieutenant Debolt each met a soldier's 
death in battle, and at Kenesaw, Captain Hamilton and Lieu- 
tenant Day were slain in action. 

The 27th was repeatedly under fire at these points. In fact 
being " under fire," in the Atlanta campaign, was the normal 
condition. When the enemy was found after any of his retreats, 
his lines had to be developed and his force driven into the 
smallest space he could be persuaded would answer his purpose. 
Our skirmish line was habitually pushed aggressively to the 
front; being constantly engaged with that of the enemy, without 
cessation day or night. Not many hours passed, during nearly 
four months, in which any soldier could flatter himself he was 
out of the possible range of shell or ball. 

On the 4th of July, 1864, the 27th and 39th regiments did 
the last fighting by our troops in that campaign, north of the 
Chattaliooche River, in 

A CHARGE AT NICKAJACK CREEK. 

The scattering forces of the enemy had been driven during the 
forenoon by our skirmishers into his outer lines of works, in front 
of which, for one hundred and fifty yards, the large tmiber had 
been trimmed up from below and the small growth felled with 



couMFus, OHIO. 45 

the tops toward us, giving the enemy an niiobstnicted view of 
all movements nnilertaken against him for tliat range, and ren- 
dering the approach on the works very difficult, especially when 
attempted under a withering fire, delivered from the secure 
position afforded by earth-works, ca|)ped with logs raised just 
enough above the work to ])crmit the insertion of the guns 
between. These were the conditions in front of the 27th on tiuit 
day. About noon the 27th and 39th regiments, the latter com- 
manded by Colonel Noyes, (now Minister to France,) were 
ordered to crawl up under cover of the standing timber, to the 
edge of the abattis, and form line to charge the works. From 
that hour till six in the evening these regiments remained in 
position, in suspense ; the order having been given several 
times to make the assault, and as often countermanded before 
it could be executed. Finally, at six p. m.. the charge was 
made, and the position carried at the point of the bayonet. Xot 
a piece was tired by the assaulting column until done over the 
Rebel works at the fleeing enemy. From sixty to seventy })ris- 
oners were taken in the trench in the 27th's front. The line 
was carried in a pocket or retired part, rendering the work 
untenable to the right and left, and it was wholly vacated. 'J'wo 
regiments of the 3d division of the IGth corps were ti> have made 
a demonstration on the right of the charging column, simulta- 
neous with the charge, but for some reason, best known to them- 
selves, failed to come to time. After the works in their front 
were vacated, this intended supporting force came out of the 
wood with a yell, and carried the empty works in their front 
with great gallantry (?) In the charge Colonel Noyes lost his 
leg, and the 27th. in killed and wounded, in less that two min- 
utes, forty-two men and officers. That night the enemy evac- 
uated his position in front of our army. 

The regiment afterward crossed the Chattahooche River at 
Roswell, and moved through Pecatur on Atlanta. On the 22tl 
of July it was lying in reserve, with the Brigade, behind (Jeneral 
Giles A. Smith's division of the 17th corps, which occupied the 
extreme left of the fortified line ; the second division, in reserve 
also, and our lirigade, both of the 10th corps, had orders to be 
ready to move at twelve m. into i)()sition on the left of Giles A. 
Smith's division, prolonging tiic main fortified line overlooking 
Atlanta. 



46 REUNIOX OHIO BRIGADE, 

But General Hood meantime had planned an engagement 
for us elsewhere, and employment for the entire army of the 
Tennessee as well, on that hot afternoon over fourteen years ago. 

THE BATTLE OF ATLANTA. 

At about twelve and a half o'clock a scattering fire was heard 
to the left and rear, in the direction in which the train of the 
Army of the Tennessee was parked. Within a few minutes 
orders were received from General Fuller to double-quick in the 
direction of the firing. The 27tli followed the road upon which 
the gallant Macphorson fell later in the day, to the open ground 
near the train, and formed line on the right of the 39th, and at 
about right angles with the main fortified line, and distant from 
it i)erhaps one-third of a mile — facing a wood about two hundred 
and fifty yards distant, and about equidistant from the wood on 
its right flank. The men were directed to unsling knapsacks, 
fix bayonets and lie down on the crest of the ridge where the 
line was formed, for protection from the fire of the enemy which 
then came from the wood in front. The second division had 
formed line, conforming in the main to that of the 27th and 
39th, on a parallel ridge to the left of the 39th, but separated 
from that regiment by a deep transverse ravine. The enemy 
charged the second division within a few minutes and were re- 
pulsed. 

Immediately afterward his line of battle came out of the 
timber in front of the 27th and 39th regiments, advancing in 
plain view and within easy range, when individual men of both 
regiments raised to their feet and taking deliberate aim, dis- 
charged their pieces. No orders could keep them down, with 
such an opportunity to use their muskets effectually. In less 
time than it takes to relate it, both regiments were on their feet, 
discharging their pieces with rapidity and telling effect on the 
foe ; yet on he came until the 27th and 39th charged him in 
turn, driving him from the field into the wood. On the dividing 
line between the wood and the field, was a marshy ravine grown 
up with brush and briars, in passing which the line of the 27th 
became broken. I halted the first part of it to get through, 
intending to reform it and continue immediately the pursuit of 
the enemy, who had just disappeared from view over a little 



COLUMFUs, oirio. 4'}' 

elevation, at the foot of which the 2rth then was. Before this 
could 1)0 (lone another body of the enemy, in line of hattle, came 
out of the \v(mk1 to the rifrht of the :2ft h, hearinjr down <m its 
flank and rear. (General Fuller directed that the three right 
comi)anics of the regiment be refused or retired to face this 
second assaulr. Tliis was done, but it soon became evident that 
a change of front to the rear, of the entire line was necessary. 
This change was made under a hot lire. In executing this 
movement, necessarily nnidi" with celerity an<l under very trying 
conditions, in the face of a deliant ami rapidlv advancing foe, 
the regiment became somewhat disordered, and my thanks are due 
to General B'uller for his timely assistance in forming the new line. 
He grasped the colors of the 3;th,and with them designated the 
ground he wished the new line to occuiiy. The line was i)roinptly 
formed there. Several volleys fired by tiie ^7th and 39th Ohio 
regiments, I8tli Missouri and 64th Illinois, (the latter two reg- 
iments until then in reserve,) followed by a charge, drove the 
enemy again from the iield. The 27th then laid down, facing 
the wood which was on its right flank in the beginning of the 
fight, under a raking fire from the timber for an hour or more, 
when the enemy retreated, and the battle was over. 

In this action the 37th was engaged about four hours ; formed 
its first line and made all subscciuent movements under fire — 
fought a stand-up, o[)en-fleld tight, with only such protection as 
the muskets and bayonets alfonled, with its right flank uncov- 
ered, and the regiment subjected in every position to a front 
and enfilading fire. 

The '37th numbered in this battle not exceeding three hun- 
dred and fifty, and sustained a loss of one hundred and thirty, 
men and otiicers, killed and wounded. 

Five days after this battle, the regiment moved with the 
Army of the Tennessee to the west side of Atlanta, and had 
heavy skirmishing to get into position. Just before the battle 
of Ezra Church began, on the 3Sth of July, the 37th got into 
position and began fortifying its line, completing it while the 
battle was in progress very near to its right. 

The regiment remained here, participating in jtushing the 
line to the front, till August 7th, ISO-i, when it was onlered 
back to Marietta to relieve a larger regiment, the latter taking 
its place at the front. The regiment renuiined at Marietta till 



48 REUNION" OHIO BEIGADE, 

tlie fall of Atlanta. Its total losses in killed and wounded, dur- 
ing the Atlanta campaign, were two hundred and sixteen — 
fifteen officers and two hundred and one men — about one-half 
the strength of tlie regiment when it entered upon the cam- 
paign. Of the nineteen field and line officers who were with 
the regiment at the commencement of the campaign, twelve 
were either killed or wounded. The losses in battle, with those 
sent to the rear on account of sickness, left the 27th numbering 
le*s that two hundred muskets present for duty at the close of 
the campaign. 

After the fall of Atlanta, the regiment was engaged in the 
pursuit of Hood to the north ; returning to Atlanta, shared in 

THE MARCH TO THE SEA, 

and the campaign of the Carolinas : being under fire for the 
last time at Bentonville, North Carolina. 

The 27th then moved through Richmond to Washington, par- 
ticipated in the grand review at the latter place, moved thence 
to Louisville, Kentucky, wdiere it was mustered out July 11th, 
1865, and subsequently paid and discharged at Camp Dennison. 

Ohio sent many good regiments to the war, and I would not 
make invidious comparisons, nor detract from the merits of any; 
yet it is believed that the State sent to the field no braver and 
more efficient regiment than the 27th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. 
It did more hard campaigning than fell to the lot of many Ohio 
regiments, and it is thought very few sustained more casualties 
in battle. 

The heroic dead of the 27th lie scattered from beyond the 
Mississippi to the Atlantic. Some rest in the prairies of the 
Missouri, some under the tall oaks of Tennessee, Mississippi and 
Alabama ; others repose under the lofty pines of Georgia, the 
nightly Avind through the boughs above making a weird requiem 
over their lowly beds, and a few rest in the Palmetto and Old 
North States. 

Let us hope that it may never again become necessary for any 
portion of the people of this country to make such priceless sac- 
rifices as these for the unity and perpetuity of the Great Ee- 
puhlic I 



conMBUs, on 10, 49 

THE 39th regiment OHIO VOLUNTEERS, 

"Was responded to in a spirited and eloquent style by Captain 
W. H. 11. MiNTUN. The Captain, in response to a request for 
a copy of his speech, sends the following letter: 

Athens. Ohio, Dec. 27th, 1H78. 
Dear Friend and Comrade: 

Your curd requesting a copy of my address delivered oti the occa»ion of 
the reunion of the Ohio Brigade, at Cohimbus, Ohio, October 8d and 
4th, 1878, is at liand. As regards the speech, I can truly say, not a line 
was, befiire or since its delivery, written by nie; and I was only conscious 
of having pleased mj' old comrades, and thus contributed m}- mite to the 
joy of the occasion. I cannot, much as I regret it, serve you with a copy, 
for, — 

" Rude am I in speech. 

And therefore little can I grace my cause 

In speaking for myself." 

So I shall not trouble you with any fine speeches and hunted figures. 
I shall just lay my hand on my heart and say, I hope I shall ever liave the 
truest, the warmest sense of the goodness of my old comrades in arms. 
Yours truly, ^y. H. H. MINTL'N. 



THE 43d OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY. 
RESPONSE— By Chaplain R. L. Chittenden. 

The 43d Regiment 0. V. I. was collected and organized at Mt. 
Vernon, in the autumn and winter of 18(il-()2. The companies 
were drawn principally from the counties of Central and East- 
ern Ohio. A part of one cninj)any (II) was from Lorain county. 
During the rendezvous of tlie regiment at the Knox county 
fair grounds, while in process of organization, a strong mutual 
regard seems to have sprung up between the good people of Mt. 
Vernon and the boys of the regiment ; a regard, the permanence 
and strength of which was attested by the hearty welcome given 
the survivors of the command at their reunion in that city, in 
October, 1876. 

The regiment took its departure for the South in the month 
of February, 18G2, under the command of Colonel J. Kirby 
Smith, a graduate of West Point, and an excellent tactician. 



50 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

The first experience of tlie regiment in the real business of 
glorious war, was at New Madrid, Mo., where shells from the 
Eebel gunboats fell among the ranks in a manner decidedly 
lively. 

A considerable part of the summer of 1863 was spent in camp 
on Clear creek and Bear creek, in Northern Alabama. During 
that season many of the 43d were prostrated by disease, which 
resulted fatally in a number of instances. 

On the 3d and 4th of October, 1862, occurred the battle of 
Corinth, Mississippi. Upon this and other regiments of the 
Ohio Brigade devolved the duty of defending our earth-works 
against the attack of the Rebel forces under General Van Dorn, 
who were determined to recover that important strategic point. 
Several fierce assaults were made by the enemy, his troops issu- 
ing from a piece of woods near by, but they were repulsed with 
severe losses. Colonel J. Kirby Smith and ildjutant Charles 
Heyl, of Columbus, both fell severely wounded, and within a 
few hours were numbered with the dead. Soon after the battle 
of Corinth the regiment was stationed for the winter at Bolivar, 
Tenn., a pleasant town in the western part of the State. Here 
the writer joined the regiment, having been commissioned as 
chaplain in place of the Rev. Mr. Bonte, resigned. The companies 
were in comfortable Sibley tents, and the mild winter passed away 
with little sickness. In March, we were removed to Bethel, 
Tenn., north of Corinth, a small railroad station, where we occu- 
pied cabins vacated by other troops. Our stay here was varied 
by an expedition made by a division under General Dodge into 
Northern Alabama. The march was through Tuscumbia. Some 
foraging was done, and a considerable amount of Rebel property 
destroyed. Soon after our return to Bethel we were ordered to 
Memphis by rail, where the summer of 1863 was spent in guard 
duty. After occupying tents for a few months, our boys erected 
neat barracks of oaken "shakes" on a level common near the 
race track. A temporary chapel was erected near by, and many 
good meetings held. In the latter part of the summer the worn 
and sun-burned legions of Sherman bivouacked near us, on their 
way from captured Yicksburg to Georgia. We looked on 
them with interest, not realizing that we should be marching 
and fighting with them the following year. The chills and 
fever, and remittents, prevailed considerably at Memphis, and 



rOLUMIUS, OHIO. .')! 

some good soldiers fell victims. Colonel Swayiie \)v\\\<^ ajtiiDintetl 
Provost Marsluil of the city, the command deveh)j»od upon 
Lieu tenant Colonel Herrick. Early in October we took up our 
long marcli eastward. Passing through Corinth we crossed 
the Tennessee at Eastport, ])assed through a fertile region, and 
in the course of time arrived at Pulaski. We tinally halted at a 
little railroad station called Prospect, some seventy miles north 
of Nashville, on the Elk river. Bridge building, foraging, and 
guard duty, occui)icd the time of the forces until the last of 
December. A large proportion of the troops having re-enlisted, 
we were granted a veteran furlough of some five or six weeks. 
The last day of December, 18fi3, was mild and rainy. Toward 
evening the wind rose, and in the night many of us were awak- 
ened by the severe cold, and made tires to keep ourselves com- 
fortable. The ne.xt morning ushered in a day memorable over 
a large district of country for the severity of the weather. But 
we were on our way home to see our wives and sweethearts, 
children and friends, and heeded not the cold. North of Co- 
lumbia, Tenn., we met a quantity of provisions, as hams, 
dressed fowls, large cakes and the like, which had been prepared 
by the ladies of Columbus, as a holiday present. At Nashville 
we took cars for Louisville, and soon reached Camp Chase, and 
dispersed for our homes. 

Re-asseml)ling at Camp Chase early in February, not without 
heavy and homesick hearts, we proceeded by rail, boat and rail, 
to a jioint in Alabama near the Tennessee river, north of Decatur. 
The ride by rail for a few hours before reaching our destination 
was a memorable one for the roughness of the road, and the 
risks of accident, but the new, rough bridges, and up and down 
grades, were passed safely. 

At Decatur Junction, i)ontoon boats were quietly constructed, 
and the river crossed by night. The few troops of the enemy 
were dispersed, one killed, and Decatur captured. A pontoon 
bridge was soon after constructed, which proved very useful. 
On a certain Sunday morning all preparations had been made 
for our usual divine service while in camp, when an alarm was 
given, and the troops ordered into line. 

Early in May, 1864, there were evident preparations for war's 
exciting, terrible work, all along the line. At the call of Sher- 
man, the great bulk of (he western forces was gathered in the 



52 REUNION" OHIO BRIGADE, 

neighborhood of Chattanoog-a for a movement southward. The 
Ohio Brigade formed part of these forces, and took part in the 
various marches and fights by which the resohite, sagacious 
Sherman steadily pushed the enemy back, back upon Athmta. 
The passing of Ship's Gap, the first, for us, skirmish of the cam- 
paign at Eesaca, the falling back through mud and darkness, 
the fight at Dallas, the rains at Acworth, the skirmishes at 
Kenesaw, the crossing of the Chattahoochee, and the fall of the 
brave and honored Macpherson, on the day of the severe action 
of the 63d Ohio, while guarding the wagon trains ; all these 
were most memorable events. During the latter part of this 
year Colonel Horace Park was in command. Colonel Herrick 
having returned to Ohio in consequence of protracted ill-health. 
At length the long lines were formed arouLd Atlanta. The 
warm weeks before that city, the almost constant booming of 
cannon, the advances and skirmishes, with death, wounds, or 
capture, as results, the music of bands enlivening the sad scenes 
of war, prayer-meetings held within sound of booming guns,, 
are well remembered. Willis Fisher was torn to pieces by a 
shell while preparing his morning coffee. Others were brought 
in from the skirmish-line to languish and die. The field hospi- 
tals presented many sad scenes of suffering, and new graveyards, 
with mounds marked by rudely-inscribed boards, gave evidence 
of the fatal work of war. 

At length Atlanta fell. The power of Hood w^as broken, and 
after a kind of picnic excursion into Northwestern Alabama 
after Hood, we returned to the neighborhood of Atlanta, and at 
Sugma camp-ground prepared for a long march. We guessed it 
would be toward the salt water ; some said Mobile would be the 
objective point. 

Many brave men and true fell during this battle summer. 
Their bones, we trust, lie in honored graves in some of those 
vast cemeteries of the South. The deeds that they have done 
live after them, and their memory is honored. They suffered, 
groaned and died, while we live on to share the advantages which 
they purchased by self-sacrifice. 

The march to the sea was in a pleasant season of the year. 
Supplies were plentiful. The pork and sweet potatoes of 
Georgia seldom failed us, and the comparatively small amount 
of hard tack taken along to serve in emergencies was sparingly 



COLUMBUS, onio. "(3 

issued. Our sojourn ueur tlie clear waters of the Ogeechee canal 
was not lengthy. Soon we heard the welcome news that Savan- 
nah had capitulated, and with docj) interest we moved into and 
through the streets of that heautiful city, and halted near Fort 
Underbolt. Here we spent Christmas, occasionally regaling 
ourselves with Georgia oysters. 

Onward was the word, and we embarked about the lir.st of 
January, of the last year of the war, on boats which landed ua 
at Beaufort, S. C. Pocatoligo was our resting place during a 
period of cold and rains. Better weather came however, and 
we moved toward the center of the State. At the close of a 
quiet day, February 2d, 1865, we neared Kiver's Bridge over the 
Salkehatchie, where the enemy had made a stand with cannon. 
Here General Swayne, while in advance of his regiment, was 
severely wounded by a piece of shell. He lay for days in a crit- 
ical condition, but in the course of time recovered his health, 
and is present with us to-day. A number of other casualties 
occurred here. The march to Columbia, lientonville, and 
Goldsboro, in which the Ohio Brigade took part, and the 
engagements that occurred, are nuitters of history. Near Raleigh, 
we heard the joyful news of Johnson's surrender. I never saw 
such demonstrations of joy. We all felt that this was, virtuallv, 
the close of the war. Our happiness was soon sadly clouded, 
however, by the news of the death of our President by assassina- 
tion. He, who had brought the luition through the wilderness 
of war and trial died, like Moses, in sight of the promised inher- 
itance of peace. 

We marched with the great army of Sherman in a north- 
easterly direction, and one day saw in the distance what ap- 
peared like a snowy peak against the azure — the great white 
dome of the Capitol. That lofty, Hrmly-founded dome, my 
fellow soldiers, is a tit emblem of the government which you 
had toiled and struggled to preserve. 

The grand review in Washington was followed by a few weeks 
of cam]) life in the vicinity, and a ride by rail and boat to Louis- 
ville. In the latter part of .luly, 18C5, we were mustered out 
at Columbus. In conclusion, my friends, none of you have 
cause to regret that you enlisted and served honorably in the 
great struggle for the Union. No, this service is a proud dis- 
tinction to hand down to your children. It will make you and 



54 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

them firm supporters of our country's lionor. Let us be thank- 
ful for God's preserving care ; let us honor the memory of our 
gallant dead, and let our prayer be, "God bless the Union." 



THE 63d OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY. 

KESPONSE— By Captain R. K. Shaw, of the 63d Regiment. 

THE UNION soldier's OATH. 

When an American citizen enters the army of his country, it 
is his duty and high privilege to take an oath that he will defend 
her and maintain the honor of her flag. This oath that one 
takes to support and defend his country, is the noblest and 
highest oath that man can take. 

It finds a home in his heart, stirs his soul with noble |)urposes, 
fills him with pride for the land that he loves, makes his hand 
strong and his heart brave. It leads him through danger and 
daring to follow his country's flag, with a pride that only a 
soldier can know, with a devotion that only a soldier can feel. 
When the Southern States made war upon our country, tore 
down and trampled upon her flag, — that glorious old flag which 
was followed by Washington, by Warren, by Marion and Lee, of 
the olden time, at Bunker Hill, at Monmouth, at Moultrie and 
Yorktown, and through suffering and hardship at Valley Forge, 
and by Decatur and Paul Jones on the sea. 

The farmer left his plow, the smith his forge, the lawyer liis 
brief, the merchant his counting-room, eager to press to the post 
of danger, ready and anxious to take and keep the patriot's oath ; 
ready to take and keep it at the sacrifice of all that life holds dear. 

Two million as brave men as ever trod the face of earth then 
took this oath. 

It was taken by Lincoln, by Ellsworth, by Baker, by Sedg- 
wick, by Kearney, by Macpherson and a galaxy of heroic dead 
who went down in freedom's great fight ; in that fight that 
kept us one, and made us free ; in that fight that withered the 
lash of the master and broke the chain of the slave : in that 
fight that said to the world that we were a NatioJi ; of the Re- 
public, that it shall live. 

Two hundred and fifty thousand kept it by pouring out their 



COLUMHUS, OHIO. 55 

lifo blood upon 11 thousand battle fields. Four hundred thou- 
sand in keeping it were maimed, and bear upon their persons 
Enduring monuments of their devotion to their country in 
keeping the patriot's oath. 

It was nobly kept by a host of the survivors. It was firmly, 
fully and steadfastly kept by the great soldier and captain, 
Ulysses S. Grant, and by his right hand, Sheridan. It was well 
and faithfully kept by our gallant comrade, the soldier, Presi- 
dent, Rutherford B. Hayes. It was kept by McClcUan at the 
Seven Pines and on the Peninsula. It was that oath that carried 
Sherman to the sea. That oath was sealed in blood by Kirby 
Smith at Corinth, by Macpherson at Atlanta, by Sedgwick at 
Fredericksburg, by Kearney at Bull Run, and by Lincoln at 
Washington. 

Let us renew this patriot oath ; let us take it and keej) it 
anew, as it was taken and kept by Washington and Warren, by 
Perry and McDonongh, by Scott and Taylor, by Thomas, Foote 
and Macpherson, by Farragut and Porter. 

And when we renew this oath, let us remember to whom we are 
indebted for a united country— for a land that is one and free— 
the brave men under the sod. from the Ohio to the Gulf, from 
the Atlantic to Mexico, who laid down their lives to maintain 
the unity of our country, and the liberty of their fellow men. 
And let us remember that when we go forth to battle again, our 
enemies will be our friends ; that those who fought us, only as 
American soldiers can fight, will tramp with us, side by side, 
under the old banner, to the music of the Union soldier's oath. 

THE UNION soldier's OATH. 

There is no towering mountain range, 

No sullen ocean deep and wide, 
That bids us freedom's fealty change, 

That can our fatherland divide. 
The God of nations made us one, 

The God of nations made us free; 
He made the land of Wa.shington 

The dwelling place of liberty. 

As God has made us one, 

As God has made us free, 

We swear we will be one, 

We swear we will be free. 
Will own one common country, 
Columbia, will own but thee, 
Our Go«i— our flag— ami liberty. 



56 REUNION OHIO BRIGADE, 

There is no line divides the clay 

That holds a race of loyal dead ; 
Between the men at Eutaw slain, 

And those the gallant Putnam led. 
There is no shade that makes us two, 

One common language we have learned, 
One common cause our fathers knew, 

Their offerings on one altar burned. 

As God has made us one, 

As God has made us free, 

We swear we will be one, 

We swear we will be free. 

Will own one common country, 

Columbia, will own but thee, 

Our God — our flag— and liberty. 

The North, the South, the East, the West, 

The teeming- millions say are mine ; 
We own the land that God has blest, 

One people own the palm and pine. 
When human hands divide the seas. 

Their mountain waters roll aside, 
Then we would lose our liberties, 

Our faithless hands God's gift divide. 

No, God has made us one, 

And God has made us free, 

We swear we will be one, 

We swear we will be free. 

Will own one common country, 

Columbia, will own but thee, 

Our God— om* flag — and liberty. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The following letters were received and road by Ooneral 
Fuller: 

FROM MAJOR GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS. 

Grand Hotel, San Fuancisco, Cal., Sept. 19, 1878. 
My Dear General: 

Your most welcome favor of the 27th ult., inviting me to be present at 
the reunion of the Ohio Brigade, at Coluinhus, Ohio, on the 4th of Oct.. 
prox., came duly to hand. 

Although at the date of its receipt it seemed hardly jirohahle that I 
should be permitted to enjoy the plea.sure of meeting my old comrades-in- 
arms of your Brigade at that reunion, I deferred writing until now, wlien 
I find I must do so to .say it will be impossible. 

But the voice of duty, thus imperious and forbidding, does not jirevent 
me from expressing the warmth of my feelings towards you for the kind 
words of your letter, and still more for your fidelity to duty, that modest, 
simple, and manly courage which distinguished you in all your official 
and personal relations while I had the honor and pleasure of having your 
Brigade under mj' command. 

The feeling of comradesliip, kindled by our being both from Ohio, and 
our brief meeting at Grafton, West Virginia, in ISfil. was warmed by 
finding you a brigade commander in the little army of the Mississippi, to 
the command of which I succeeded in 18()'2; it grew to especial esteem, 
both for you and the whole Brigade, during the five months of camji duly 
which followed, and was filled to its perfect nu-asure by the conduct of 
yourself and the Ohio Brigade in the glorious combats, of luka wliich was 
fought on the 19th of September, and of Coriuth on tiio 3d and 4th of 
October. 18(52. 

Your letter, and the date at the top of mine— that of the sixteeutli 
anniversary of tiie battle of luka— bring up a wiiole panorama of the 
events of those two battles, and the positions, in these pi«tures. occupied 
by the Ohio Brigade, are clearly before me. From the iialt of Stanley's 



58 KEUNIOISr OHIO BRIGADE, 

Division at Barnet's Cross-roads at 12:30 p. m. of the 19th, to the halt in 
the lane of tlie little farm-house, which soon became the hospital of the 
field of luka, at 4 p. m. of the same day, when Hamilton's division drew 
the opening fire of the enemy just ahead of you at the forks of the luka 
and a cross-road leading over to the Fulton road, one and a half miles 
away to the east of us. 

The feeble and foot-sore of our four slender brigades had been left to de- 
fend the camps at Corinth. Our brethren in arms under Ord, Ross and 
McArthur on the railroad route, were already at Burnsville, only six miles 
from luka on the afternoon of the 18th. Hamilton's two brigades of our 
command lay at Jacinto, nine miles south-west of Burnsville, which place 
you reached on the night of that day, after a hot, dusty and fatiguing 
march of fifteen miles, from Camp Clear Creek. By 4 p. m. of the fol- 
lowing day, the Ohio Brigade had marched eighteen miles further, and 
were halted in the lane where my memory pictures them, at the opening 
of the fight. They were " on time," as they always were when duty was 
to be performed — the time announced in my dispatches from Jacinto, on 
the night of the 18th, and 7 a. m. of the 19th and of 12:40 p. m. of the 
same day, from Barnet's Cross-roads — all promptly sent to General Grant, 
not by a single messenger, but through a line of cavalry vedettes, posted 
under a competent officer by threes every two or three miles from his 
head-quarters to mine, moving in the field. Of the establishment and 
maintenance of this line under my orders. General Grant was advised by 
my first dispatch from Jacinto on the night of the 18th. 

There stood the Ohio Brigade in column at 4 p. m., awaiting orders. 
The roar of battle was swelling in front, while from the railway, only two 
miles to our left, when we expected to have heard the guns of General 
Grant's column, no sounds came. But across the intervening cotton- 
fields the Rebel columns could be seen hastening to assault our little col- 
umn, as if there were nothing to hinder. 

You had seen Colonels Sago and Dickey, of General Grant's staff, join 
me at Barnet's and go up with me to the battle-field. It was apparent 
that we were expected to go on according to the programme. The Brig- 
ade probably saw those officers passing it going to the rear, after the 
battle began. It heard the swell of battle on our front, but no sound 
from our brethren on the Burnsville line. The cannonading was heard 
by Colonel Du Bois and his command, over hill and dale and forest, more 
than fifteen miles distant, as the crow files; it was heard by General 
McArthur's command on the extreme left of the Burnsville column, the 
right of which could not have been over five miles from the scene of 
action. 

What was going on in General Grant's mind under all these circum- 
stances, will never be known. We only know that during the day he had 
sent General Ord and Colonel A. C. Ducat with a flag of truce to 
demand the surrender of General Price, on the ground of Lee's having 
been beaten at Antietam. 

Cool and cheerful stood the Ohio Brigade, both officers and men await- 



COLUMIU'S, 0][IO. 59 

ing orders, wIrii 1 caiiic in person to give tliein. I even remember how 
they were enjoying the honey, wliich. by an invention unsnrpiissed for 
boldness, novelty and perfection, they had managed to secure from the 
bee-hives in the yard of that farm-house. Doubtless many of those present 
at the reunion will remember that invention. 

I remember how the lirigade went up to the front witii tiie gallant Col- 
onel Mower and the llfli Missouri on tiieir right, and how, amidst the 
most terrific musketry tiring, succeeded by the shouts of our victorious 
lines, darkness closed, and the combatant lines rested on their arms 
almost within one hundred yards of each other, the dead and dying of 
both strewing the ground between. I recall your long vigil on this critical 
front. At 3 a. m. of the 20th, the brave and dutiful commander of the 
Ohio Brigade reported that some of the sounds and almost whispered 
commands heard from the enemy's side indicated a withdrawal from their 
present position; but whether to attack our right or to assume abetter 
position for the ne.\t day's battle, could only l)e ascertained when at day- 
light Fullers Brigade advanced its skirmishers and found that the enemy 
had retreated, leaving his dead and wounded on tiie field. 

Of the pursuit wiiich was immediate, in which the Ohio Brigade led; of 
its return to Cami) (Hear Creek; of its coming up to Corinth on the night 
of the 2d of October; of its closing into the fight on the 3d; and of its 
glorious behavior near battery Robinet on the 4th; I will not speak. 
Memory lingers over it, but it will be one of the themes of your reunion. 

I shall never forget that, after our recall from pursuit of the enemy's 
defeated columns — that unfortunate recall which afterwards cost us so 
much blood and treasure — when Stanley's division asked permission to 
march by my lieadcpiariers, the sight of those gallant otlicers and men. 
bearing their bullet-riddled flags, their ranks thinned by the two bloody 
battles, but full of that lire and energy that flow from a consciousness of 
well-done duty, brought tears of grateful sympathy to my eyes. 

Duty to our country soon thereafter separated us. to meet never more 
under military orders nor, except in scattering and feeble numbers, even 
beneath the same sunshine. But we who survive, living in peace beneath 
the starry flag we have carried to battle and victory upon so many fields, 
will never cease to cherish the memory of our companions who fell before 
or perished since Its triumph; nor to strengthen the bonds of Hrotiierhood 
created by perils and labors shared in a cause so noble and so fraught 
with immeasurable benefits to all coming generations who shall prove 
worthy of their country. 

If I may be permitted to ask a favor of my old comrades of the Ohio 
Brigade, it is this: Acting upon an inflexible rule of duty to the otlicers 
and men of my command and to the truth of history, I have always made 
full reports of all engagements or battles fought under my orders. This 
I did to General (xrant for the battles of luka and of Corinth. To pre- 
vent the misstatements whicli began to aj^pear concerning them fronj gain- 
ing a foothold in history, I gave summary statements of the ]>rineipal 
events in tiiem in my personal report to the Adjutant Ceneral of the 



60 REUN^IOJSr OHIO BRIGADE, 

Army, and in my testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the 
War. Nevertheless, I have not been able to spare time from earning my 
daily bread to follow up, in the newspapers, the falsehoods unprincipled 
and time serving men have put in circulation concerning these battles. 
Until I can spare this time, I beg these, my comrades, to be my witnesses 
that General Grant's report of the battle of luka, the account of the 
same in Badeau's Life of Grant, and in lesser degree, the unfortunate and 
uncalled for account of the same by my friend, General Sherman, in his 
Memoirs, contain substantial and important falsifications of the truth 
abundantly testified to by existing documents and known to hosts of liv- 
ing witnesses. 

With warmest wishes for long life, happiness and honor to each mem- 
ber of the Ohio Brigade, and renewed assurances of esteem and friend.ship 
for yourself, my dear General, I remain. 

Very faithfully, your comrade, 

W. S. ROSECRANS. 
Major General J. W. Fuller, 

Toledo, Ohio. , 



FROM GENERAL D. S. STANLEY. 

New York City, October 1, 1878. 
Dear General: 

My inclinations and affections prompt me to be with you to-morrow, 
but family cares forbid. The idea of the reunion of the Ohio Brigade is 
a most excellent one. Indeed, we have too few of the local reunions of 
the soldiers of the war, and probably we have too many meetings of the 
large societies which are expensive and scarcely accessible to the private 
soldier who enjoys these meetings so heartily. 

The greater part of the year 1863 I spent with the Ohio Brigade, and 
what an eventful year it was; marches in mud and water, marches in 
sultry Mississippi forests, battles, big and little, skirmishes innumerable — 
the full history of the Brigade, for that year alone, would make a great 
book, had we a Jomine or Napier to write it. Until the end of the war 
I followed closely the career of the four regiments which composed that 
gallant Brigade. I was justifiably proud to say I once commanded these 
brave fellows. My interest in the survivors is still unabated, and I hope 
you may have many happy reunions. 

Yours truly, 

D. S. STANLEY. 
General John W. Fuller, 

Columbus. Ohio. 



COHMIU.S, OHIO, Ql 

FROM GENERAL WM. E. STRONG. 

CUICAOO, Hepl. 27. 1878. 
Dear General: 

I have received your kind invitation to be present in Coliiml)iis, October 
3d and 4th, on the occasion of the reunion of the Oiiio Hri{,^a(le. 

When I tirst received your note of invitation, I hoped I sliould be able 
to arrange my business so as to be present, but an important matter calls 
me away from Chicago on Saturday next, and I cannot get back before 
October 7th or 8th; I am, therefore, compelled to send my regrets. 

I am very sorry it has happened so. Nothing would have given me 
greater pleasure than to have met you and General Swayne and General 
Walcutt, and other otlicers and soldiers of that grand Brigade whose foot- 
prints can be traced on nearly every battle-field of the Army of the Ten- 
nessee. It was my good fortune to be intimately associated, during 1863, 
1864 and 1865, witii many of the officers of the Ohio Brigade. I have 
inspected many of the Ohio regiments, and I can bear testimony to the 
splendid condition in which they were always found. 

I trust your reunion will be a happy one. Remember me kindly to all 
friends. Ever sincerely yours, 

WM. E. STRONG. 
General John W. Fuller, 

Toledo, Ohio. 



FROM GENERAL G. M. DODGE. 

New York, Sept. 28. 1878. 
My Dear General: 

I received to-day, on my arrival from Europe, your letter of the 21st 
inst., enclosing an invitation to the reunion of the Ohio Brigade. 

Nothing would give me more pleasure than to be present, and meet my 
old comrades who served with me so ably and clTectively as did that 
Brigade, but my duties are such that I have not the time to spare. 

I can remember how an.xiously I watched it on that fatal 22d of July, 
when I sent you the order to charge with your division, in order to fake 
away from my left the terrible i)ressure that was upon it. How well and 
gallantly they performed the duty, and at what sacrilice. the record but 
too woU shows; and that portion under General Sprague that savetl us at 
Decatur, fought with a determination, and hung to the position with a 
tenacity that won words of commendation from every commander in the 
brave Army of the Tennessee; and I can say now, years after all these 
things occurred, what I said then ollicially. that no better troops ever fell 
to my lot to be associated with. 



62 REUNION OHIO BKIGADE, 

It has been my good fortune in these after years to know intimately, 
and to honor many of the gallant men of that Brigade who made such a 
noble record in the army, and who, in all the time they were with me, 
were never called upon but they responded with an alacrity and spirit 
that insured a victory, and who never left a field in defeat. 

Extending to them my hearty congratulations, and while 1 cannot be 
present in person, I shall be in mind, I am 

Very truly yours, 

G. M. DODGE. 
General John W. Fuller, 

Toledo, Ohio. 



FEOM GENERAL SPRAGUE. 

Portland, Oregon, Sept. 11, 1878. 
My Dear General: 

I am in receipt of your favor of the 14th ult., inviting me to be present 
at the reunion of the old Ohio Brigade, to be held at Columbus, Ohio, 
th'i 3d an 4th proximo. 

I can think of no reunion of hearts and hands that would give me 
more pleasure to participate in than the one mentioned. The days 
selected are eminently fitting, as they are the anniversary of the days 
when the regiments received their first notable baptism of blood and fire, 
and from that date could rightfully claim to be the peers of any organiza- 
tion in the armies of the United States. The scenes of the 4th of October, 
1863, are, I doubt not, indelibly photographed upon the memory of every 
living man who participated in the stirring scenes of that day; and from 
that hour has gladly recognized every man a comrade and brother who 
showed himself a true man on that field. 

My lot seems to have been cast in a remote corner of our country, yet 
I can saj^ " my lines have fallen in pleasant places," but they are so re- 
mote from the place of your meeting, and my duties are so pressing at 
this season of the year, that I am compelled to deny myself the pleasure 
and honor of attending the reunion. I wish it were otherwise, for I 
would like to be where so many good and true men will greet each other, 
and where one could feel that every hand he touched and every eye he 
looked into, and the hearts that animated tlieni, have always been true 
and loyal to our country. These things are as dear to me now as they were 
sixteen years ago, and the conviction is as strong that every man who 
struck a blow at the life of this nation then and is still unrepentant, is to 
be distrusted now as then. 

I desire to be regarded as a comrade of every surviving member of the 



COLUMBUS, OHIO. <;3 

old Ohio Brigade, and as such I asl< to Itc prcscnlcd aJToctioiiatciy to all 
who maj^ be present. 

I shall he witli you in spirit on the days mentioned, hoping that the re- 
union will he iiai)py antl i)rohtal)l<! to all. 

Your friend. 

.loiix w. sPH.V(;rE. 

General John W. Fui-leu, 

Toledo, Oliio. 



FROM GENERAL OGLESBY. 

Decatch, III., September 29, 1878. 
My Dear Sir: 

Ou my return home to-ilay I found your kind letter of the 2lst, invit- 
ing me to be present ou the occasion of the first reunion of tlir Oliio 
Brigade, at Columbus, O. , October ;}d and 4th. 

I extremely regret to say that I have appointments in Illinois for both 
these days, which I must fill. Otherwise I would be pleased to visit 
Columbus to look once more upon what is left of that splendid brigade. 
I knew enough of it to know that in the dark hour of danger, when tlie 
peace and happiness of our people were threatened by the rebellion, it 
added a ray of life to everj' heart, wherever it ajipeared on the tlieatre of 
war. 

It takes occasion to celebrate in its reunion, two of the most memora- 
ble days of the war. We all remember tiie terrible battle of Coriutii, 
and how much depended upon its successful issue; for had our forces 
been defeated there, the Rebels would have recovered the whole of Ten- 
nessee, and all of Kentucky, back to the mouth of tlie Ohio River. I 
have ever felt that the importance of that battle has not been fully recog- 
nized by our people, nor by any history of the war which I have read. 
However, we all tried to do our duty, and it is a pleasure to me now, in 
so far as any good word of mine can do so, to recognize anew the honor 
able services and great courage of the Ohio Brigade. 

Allow me especially to mention the services of the 81st Ohio, which 

were with me and under my command, on the 3d and 4th of October, at 

the battle of Corinth. Their behavior was excellent ; and the good people 

of your State ought never to forget the 81st Ohio Regiment of Volunteers. 

My toast: 

The Ohio Brigade 

Never laid in the shade, 

When there was duty to do 

On field or parade. 

Verv trulv vours. 



K. .1 OIJLKSBV 



General John W. Fuller. 

Toledo, ()iii( 



64 REUIS'ION OHIO BRIGADE, 

FROM GOVERNOR FLETCHER. 

St. Louis, September 25th, 1878. 
Dear General: 

Yours of the 13th was received some days since. I had our leading 
city papers notice the reunion of the Ohio Brigade, and have endeavored 
to learn who was major of the 11th Missouri Infantry at the battle of 
Corinth. I presume it was A. J. Weber, but as there were six or seven 
majors of that regiment, by reason of deaths, resignations and promotions, 
I am not positive that Weber was major at the battle of Corinth. I am 
not able just now to give you his address. 

Many thanks for the kind invitation to be with you. I am sure I would 
enjoy the occasion, but it is impossible for me to go. Our courts are just 
beginning to grind again after the summer vacation, and I am exceed- 
ingly busy, and will be kept at hard labor for the next three months. 
Hoping you may have a good time, and regretting my inability to be 
there to share it, I am, with hearty good wishes to the survivors of the 
Ohio Brigade, and assurances of true regards for yourself. 

Truly yours, 

THO. C. FLETCHER. 



FROM COLONEL FRANK LYNCH, OF THE 27th 

Cleveland, O ., September 30, 1878. 
Dear General: 

I know of no other way to do but deny myself the pleasure of being 
with you at the reunion on the 4th . It is too bad, but I should have left 
some weeks ago, while the weather was warmer. My wounds are just as 
much care to me to-day as they were seven years ago ; that is, I have to 
dress them, as they discharge all the time. Of course it is better they 
should, for if they were to heal up on the outside, I should be carried 
into quick consumption. You know I had an operation performed some 
years ago, by which I had my chest cut open, and twenty inches of the 
fourth, fifth, and seventh ribs cut out; a portion of the shoulder blade 
and breast-bone went at the same time. I go to California wholly to 
regain my health, and nothing could keep me from being with you all, 
but what I write. Now, dear General, represent me in the proper light 
to our comrades of the 37th, and the Brigade, and at the same time 
accept the warmest thanks of Mrs. Lynch and myself for the kind inter- 
est taken in me. Hoping to be again one of your many resident friends 
(soldiers) of Cleveland, in the short time of seven or eight months, I shall 
have to bid you good-by. Fraternally, 

FRANK LYNCH. 



coLUMnus, OHIO, »;5 

FROM GENERAL JOHN A. I.OCAX. 

<'iii<A(;(). Ii.i... Sipl. 2.")Ili, 1H7«. 
Dear Sik: 

Owing to previous t-ugiigenunls, I must forego the pleasure (»f again 
meeting the survivors of the Oliio Hrigade, numy of whom I siiall u.-v.t 
forget while memory lasts. The indelible scenes of Atlanta and other 
memorable battles, have fi.ved upon my mind hosts of participants. And 
I would that more of these men had survived, that we might not today 
feel that there was much danger that their intrepid valor and sad sacri- 
tice was all for naught. Trusting you may have a good time, I am. 

Yours truly, JOHN A. LOGAN. 

Hon. J. W. FcLLKH, 

Toledo. Ohio. 



FROM JOHN C. HAMILTON. 

St. P.vul, Minn., Sept. 28, 1878. 
My De.\ii Sir: 

Until now it has been my intention to meet with the "Old Ohio Urii^adc," 
October 8d and 4th; but greatly to my distippoiuti/wni. I lind that prcxKiinj 
business will prevent me so doing; and I perhaps feel it more keenly on 
account of this being the first meeting of this yall<iu( command, every 
member of which seems almost as near to me as a brother. Please convey 
my regrets and say to them, it is one of the grentott (hxupixiintnuntM of my 
life that I am not permitted to meet with them and join in r/wrus/u'itg tlie 
memory of such heroic names as J. L. Kiiby Smith, Captain Spangler, 
Adjutant Heyl and Corporals Leggelt and Crumley, of my own beloved 
Co. C, all of whom gave up their lives in supporting Fort Robiiwt on Unit 
memorable 4th of October, 1862, and the two latter while pfrnonalli/ pro 
tecting the glorious colors of the 48(1, whose tatters will doul>th'ss be in 
plain view during the approaching reunion. And I might name many 
more, dead as well as living, of the 27th, 8!»th and (!:Jd Ohio regiments. 
wherii gallant ri/ wixs ronspie nous on that ireutful day, but will leave that 
for those who will be present, and do.se with iissuriiig you that, although 
absent in person. I am with j-ou henrtihf in sentiment. 

Trusting that you will havf such a lime as (inly .■"/'■/; men dc-irviio 
have, I am yours truly. 

JOHN C. HAMILTON. 
Late Captain Co. C. 48d Ohio, and .Major 17Hth Ohio. 

Geneh.\l W.\oer Swaynk. 



66 REUNION OHIO BKIGADE, 

FROM W. E. THRALL. 

Chicago, Oct. 3, 1878. 
My Dear General: 

I deeply regret that I shall be unable to be with you to-day and to- 
morrow at Columbus. I have postponed writing you until now, hoping 
I might be able to spend a few hours with you, but I now see it is impos- 
sible. 

Kemember me kindly to the comrades of the Ohio Brigade, for each of 
whom I feel a deep and kindly interest. I hope this reunion will be only 
the organizer to future ones, and that I may be able yet to meet and greet 
the veterans of our Brigade. 

With an earnest belief that you will have a profitable and peasant time, 

1 remain Very truly yours, 

W. R. THRALL. 
General John W. Fuller, 

Columbus, Ohio. 



FROM J. H. BOGGIS. 

Lock Haven, Pa., Sept. 28th, 1878. 
Dear General: 

I sincere]}^ regret that I am compelled to give up my intention of attend- 
ing the reunion of the Ohio Brigade on the 3d and 4th proximo. 

I had anticipated much pleasure in meeting many of my old comrades 
whom I have not seen since we laid aside the military and donned the cit- 
izen's dress. 

The record of the Ohio Brigade is historic, and, as the years pass away, 
may the pride that we have of having once belonged to it, cause the fires of 
patriotism to ever burn bright within our hearts, and keep alive the princi- 
ples for which we fought, and for which the intrepid Smith, the courageous 
Webb, the daring Sawyer, who was every inch a soldier, and many others 
whose names we shall never forget, passed to the spirit land with no gen- 
tle hand and loving voice of mother, wife or sister, to usher the departing 
spirit into its Maker's presence, embalmed in woman's noblest prayer, and 
as we laid them to rest " beneath the low green tent whose curtain never 
outward swings," the God of Battles heard the secret prayer as we pledged 
ourselves anew to our country. How we are keeping that pledge each one 
must answer for himself. 

Give all a cordial greeting for me, and I hope nothing will cause me to 
be absent from any future reunion, as I know you will have a good time. 
I am Very truly yours, 

J. H. BOGGIS. 



BS©" The Committee on Publicatiou desire to explain that the cause of delay of publica- 
tion was on account of all manuscripts not being received until after September loth, 1879. 



